The Scope and Implications of a Tracing Mechanism for Small Arms ...

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115 The second UNLiREC/CICAD/OAS initiative involves the development of the “Regional Clearing-house Project on Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives” 8 and one of its objectives is the collection and destruction of surplus and illicitly trafficked small arms and light weapons. An important element is to identify and evidentially record details of seized illegal weapon caches prior to destruction and use that information to trace the sources of illicit supply. To support this project, the RCMP is again making available its technology with the Firearms Reference Table. Training packages are currently being developed involving evidential procedures for identifying, cataloguing and tracing weapons, which will include the use of IWETS. The US is a major arms producer and exporter and the ATF is pivotal to much of the worldwide tracing of firearms through the National Tracing Center (NTC). Access to NTC records can be made direct by law enforcement agencies or routed via their Interpol NCB. ATF records include all commercial sales and exports of civilian and surplus ex-military weapons. The ATF can also facilitate access to the US Department of Defense to check their records of US military issue weapons on a case-by-case basis. 3.2.3 Recommendations 1. Through international development outreach programmes, introduce harmonized regional controls based on the CICAD/UNLiREC/OAS initiatives. 2. Encourage countries to set up computerized national record-keeping systems; potentially one for civilian and commercial holdings and a second for military holdings. 3. Adopt the IWETS as the standard for international information exchange to trace illicitly trafficked weapons. 4. Encourage countries, which are signatories to treaties and protocols aimed at transparency over arms exports, to establish a member Statewide record-keeping system, which collates on to a computerized database all disclosures to individually identify the weapons involved. Politically sensitive transfers or transactions, if not specific to each
116 individual weapon, should as a minimum give sufficient information to benefit subsequent tracing, e.g. to include the quantity, model, calibre and country of manufacture. 3.2.4 Considerations Transfers disclosed to record-keeping systems can be cross-referenced with the Interpol IWETS database of lost or stolen firearms to identify when illicit weapons reappear on the market and help identify potential traffickers. The legal arms trade needs a system of mandatory disclosure to help prevent diversion. Mandatory disclosure will require statutory underpinning to provide the necessary legislation, which allows for proactive monitoring by the authorities. This could mirror existing legislation that requires advance disclosure of financial transactions to national authorities to counter money laundering. Transfer disclosures need to include sufficient information to identify all relevant parties involved in the transaction. Where a transfer subsequently leads to diversion and illicit trafficking, then the people involved should be “flagged” on the system. Any subsequent transaction involving one or more of the same parties can then be identified as potentially suspicious. The capacity to proactively monitor mandatory disclosures of intended transfers on the arms market, using computerized record-keeping systems looking for these common denominators engaged in illicit activity, enables the authorities to intervene early and either prevent, disrupt, or arrest and prosecute the traffickers. (“Front companies” are a regular feature of arms trafficking; set up for a one-off transaction by perpetrators who quickly move on. Nevertheless, intelligence can be collected to create profiles enabling the authorities, for example when validating import/export licensing applications, to identify common denominators or tell-tale hallmark precursor activity, which indicate a potential “front company” and an impending illicit transaction). 3.3. GAPS IN EXISTING CONTROLS OVER THE LEGAL ARMS TRADE The most serious gaps can be summarised as follows: • Limited verification of the validity of End-User Certificates;
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UNIDIR/2002/20 The Scope and Implic
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CONTENTS Page Preface. . . . . . .
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v Chapter 4 Structures and Institut
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viii point of diversion, thus inhib
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ACRONYMS ATFUS BATF BPA CFR CFR CIC
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xiii VIN WFSA WIES WR Vehicle Ident
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2 and lines of supply of illicit SA
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4 First, if a weapon has been invol
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6 The UN Programme of Action includ
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8 1.3 MARKING 1.3.1 Introduction A
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10 uniquely identify each productio
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12 • Ensure, at the time of trans
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14 • increasing the resistance of
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16 The UN Firearms Protocol, in its
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18 component of this project is to
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20 They clarify whether a weapon is
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22 Though such systems have great p
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24 have a more prominent role to pl
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26 That said, national intelligence
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28 training and technical assistanc
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30 This highlights one of the most
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32 An international tracing mechani
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34 Some of the necessary elements a
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36 on sources and lines of supply o
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38 In promoting international assis
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40 3 Programme of Action to Prevent
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42 25 This section draws on discuss
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45 BIBLIOGRAPHY Berkol, Ilhan, Mark
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CHAPTER 2 WHAT TO MARK AND WHAT TO
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49 tracing method for all SALW (con
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51 Figure 2: : The different sub-ca
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53 In order to better grasp the pro
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55 SALW include weapons of war, def
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57 The following questions should t
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59 All of this data, while useful f
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61 2.5 WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR IN
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63 traced, but which ones? Precisel
Page 78 and 79: 65 Table 1: Firearms recovered in c
Page 80 and 81: 67 explosives belts and dozens of t
Page 82 and 83: 69 This data provides an interestin
Page 84 and 85: 71 weapons belonging to illicit cir
Page 86 and 87: 73 imagine being able to effectivel
Page 88 and 89: 75 case of Switzerland, it would be
Page 90 and 91: 77 electronics in animal identifica
Page 92 and 93: 79 based our reflection on goals fo
Page 94 and 95: 81 10 Small Arms Survey, Annuaire s
Page 96 and 97: APPENDIX 1 83
Page 98 and 99: APPENDIX 3 85
Page 100: 87 the army weapon is capable of au
Page 103 and 104: 90 significance, hence in general t
Page 105 and 106: 92 3.1.2 Sanitization Removal or ob
Page 107 and 108: 94 Chinese Type 56-1 Unique Identif
Page 109 and 110: 96 verify that the imported weapons
Page 111 and 112: 98 weapons. There are risks involve
Page 113 and 114: 100 China Type 56 Russia AK47 Russi
Page 115 and 116: 102 channels, with the protection o
Page 117 and 118: 104 3.1.9 Comments Countries seekin
Page 119 and 120: 106 as a result, potentially tip-of
Page 121 and 122: 108 2. All markings must be made pe
Page 123 and 124: 110 shared encryption standard. The
Page 125 and 126: 112 Domestic record-keeping varies
Page 127: 114 Nevertheless, whilst the Wassen
Page 131 and 132: 118 • “Consolidation”—4 x 2
Page 133 and 134: 120 With the scope of the Protocol
Page 135 and 136: 122 The South African authorities a
Page 137 and 138: 124 • (Tracing) Details of all st
Page 139 and 140: 126 tracing Chinese weapons. Conseq
Page 141 and 142: 128 circulating information by fax
Page 143 and 144: 130 Tracing requests are normally c
Page 145 and 146: 132 encourage countries along the t
Page 147 and 148: 134 close enough to provide adequat
Page 149 and 150: 136 3. If Interpol is not up to the
Page 151 and 152: 138 which restrict the amount of in
Page 153 and 154: 140 9 It was notable during negotia
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Page 157 and 158: 144 There are other reasons as well
Page 159 and 160: 146 Laws Firearms are a durable com
Page 161 and 162: 148 This last point should not be u
Page 163 and 164: 150 the future a firearm tracing qu
Page 165 and 166: 152 There are several important ele
Page 167 and 168: 154 Canada, nearly all transfers re
Page 169 and 170: 156 accuracy and man-hour effective
Page 171 and 172: 158 industry practices. An effectiv
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Page 175 and 176: 162 manner in national (and possibl
Page 177 and 178: 164 routine stockpile management. A
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166 International regulations on th
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168 2. The definitions of weapons,
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170 enable national authorities to
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172 serial number of the firearm. T
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174 9. Explosives: the recommendati
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176 • The States parties undertak
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178 • The following is establishe
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180 International regulations on th
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182 • The participating States ag
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184 The Convention on Plastic Explo
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186 5.3.1 European Joint Action The
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188 years in July 2001. In December
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190 • States must make efforts to
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192 a greater degree of harmonizati
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194 this may lead to the undesirabl
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196 28 Or at least difficult or imp
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198 49 Speech by Mr. Koffi Adjouman
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200 in its capacity as President of
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202 Table 1: Scope of the Seven Pri
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204 Table 1 (continued) Characteris
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206 Characteristics of the marking
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208 Characteristics of the marking
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210 Characteristics of the recordke
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212 Characteristics of the record-k
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214 Table 4: Comparison of the Stan
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216 Characteristics of the exchange
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218
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