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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

135 Secretariat shall take all necessary precautions to protect the safety and secrecy of police information and to prevent such information from being illicitly or improperly processed or communicated” and “staff shall be bound by rules of professional secrecy”. 3.14 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF UTILISING POLICE AND MILITARY TRACING MECHANISMS IN AN ARMS CONTROL CONTEXT In discussions whilst researching this paper, some argued that law enforcement agencies should not become engaged in investigations to trace firearms or military small arms and light weapons unless the weapons are illicit. However, the proliferation of arms poses the gravest threat in developing countries where there is almost a complete absence of appropriate records. Consequently, tracing has to be undertaken as a matter of course whenever a batch of weapons is recovered just to determine whether they are potentially licit or illicit. As previously outlined in this paper one interpretation of “illicit” is that there is no record authorizing a weapon to be in the country where it is found. Another indication of what is meant by “illicit” can be found in Article 3(e) 18 of the UN Firearms Protocol. In recognition that this is very much a condition of “which came first: the chicken or the egg?” investigations to trace weapons must be able to proceed on the basis that there are grounds to suspect that they are illicit rather than denying access to tracing mechanisms until the “illicit factor” has been proven. “Tracing” is defined in Article 3(f) of the UN Firearms Protocol 19 and is broad enough to entitle a competent authority in any State that is a party to the Protocol to initiate an investigation to trace weapons. However, this appears to exclude NGOs, as they are not a “competent authority” for the purposes of the Protocol. This leads on to three important questions: 1. Can access to existing law enforcement mechanisms and agreements on judicial cooperation be extended to entitle NGOs to utilize them for their own investigations? 2. Can these tracing mechanisms be utilized to investigate the destabilising proliferation of weapons in regions of conflict or post conflict where the margin between licit and illicit is blurred? and,
136 3. If Interpol is not up to the task and no is the answer to both of the above, then should an alternative tracing mechanism be created, which is accessible to NGOs, and recognized and given authority to operate alongside existing law enforcement mechanisms? Answers to the above can be found amongst the Provisions of the UN Firearms Protocol (UN FP) and the UN TOC together with the Interpol Rules on International Police Co-operation (Interpol Rules). The first two documents are clearly aimed at increasing cooperation between police and customs as national “competent authorities”. They do not extend to NGOs. For the purposes of the UN TOC, cooperation is focused on the investigation of serious crimes involving an organized criminal group. 20 There is no doubt that illicit trafficking satisfies both of these requirements. Article 1 of the UN FP makes it clear that the purpose of the Protocol is to “prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trafficking in firearms” and Article 12(4) says “States Parties shall co-operate in the tracing of firearms, their parts and components and ammunition that may have been illicitly trafficked”. Therefore, tracing can be undertaken just to establish whether or not the weapons are illicit. The “illicit factor” does not have to be proven beforehand. For NGOs to be able to exploit the UN FP, they will need to identify a competent authority in the country in which they are operating (police, military or interim UN Peacekeepers) to act on their behalf or work alongside them. Article 6 21 of the Interpol Rules entitles any organization to ask Interpol for assistance to “process police information”. Whilst “police information” is not defined, tracing firearms is an everyday feature of Interpol’s work. Therefore, NGOs can ask for help from Interpol to trace military small arms and light weapons in circumstances that lead to a suspicion that they were illicitly trafficked. Provided either the local Interpol National Contact Bureau or one selected by the Interpol General Secretariat sponsors the NGO, then the investigation can proceed. The Interpol General Secretariat has positively supported previous joint NGO/ competent authority investigations, including the UN Commission of Inquiry on arms trafficking in Rwanda. There is no need, therefore, to create an alternative tracing mechanism bespoke to the needs of the NGO community. To further this argument, policing is also about “building safer communities” 22 and reducing the fear of crime through preventive measures. It’s not just about enforcement of legislation and criminal investigations. Therefore, where the proliferation of arms is destabilising
Page 1 and 2:
UNIDIR/2002/20 The Scope and Implic
Page 3 and 4:
CONTENTS Page Preface. . . . . . .
Page 5:
v Chapter 4 Structures and Institut
Page 8 and 9:
viii point of diversion, thus inhib
Page 11 and 12:
ACRONYMS ATFUS BATF BPA CFR CFR CIC
Page 13 and 14:
xiii VIN WFSA WIES WR Vehicle Ident
Page 15 and 16:
2 and lines of supply of illicit SA
Page 17 and 18:
4 First, if a weapon has been invol
Page 19 and 20:
6 The UN Programme of Action includ
Page 21 and 22:
8 1.3 MARKING 1.3.1 Introduction A
Page 23 and 24:
10 uniquely identify each productio
Page 25 and 26:
12 • Ensure, at the time of trans
Page 27 and 28:
14 • increasing the resistance of
Page 29 and 30:
16 The UN Firearms Protocol, in its
Page 31 and 32:
18 component of this project is to
Page 33 and 34:
20 They clarify whether a weapon is
Page 35 and 36:
22 Though such systems have great p
Page 37 and 38:
24 have a more prominent role to pl
Page 39 and 40:
26 That said, national intelligence
Page 41 and 42:
28 training and technical assistanc
Page 43 and 44:
30 This highlights one of the most
Page 45 and 46:
32 An international tracing mechani
Page 47 and 48:
34 Some of the necessary elements a
Page 49 and 50:
36 on sources and lines of supply o
Page 51 and 52:
38 In promoting international assis
Page 53 and 54:
40 3 Programme of Action to Prevent
Page 55 and 56:
42 25 This section draws on discuss
Page 58 and 59:
45 BIBLIOGRAPHY Berkol, Ilhan, Mark
Page 60 and 61:
CHAPTER 2 WHAT TO MARK AND WHAT TO
Page 62 and 63:
49 tracing method for all SALW (con
Page 64 and 65:
51 Figure 2: : The different sub-ca
Page 66 and 67:
53 In order to better grasp the pro
Page 68 and 69:
55 SALW include weapons of war, def
Page 70 and 71:
57 The following questions should t
Page 72 and 73:
59 All of this data, while useful f
Page 74 and 75:
61 2.5 WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR IN
Page 76 and 77:
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 and 128: 114 Nevertheless, whilst the Wassen
Page 129 and 130: 116 individual weapon, should as a
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: 134 close enough to provide adequat
Page 151 and 152: 138 which restrict the amount of in
Page 153 and 154: 140 9 It was notable during negotia
Page 155 and 156: 142
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
Page 173 and 174: 160
Page 175 and 176: 162 manner in national (and possibl
Page 177 and 178: 164 routine stockpile management. A
Page 179 and 180: 166 International regulations on th
Page 181 and 182: 168 2. The definitions of weapons,
Page 183 and 184: 170 enable national authorities to
Page 185 and 186: 172 serial number of the firearm. T
Page 187 and 188: 174 9. Explosives: the recommendati
Page 189 and 190: 176 • The States parties undertak
Page 191 and 192: 178 • The following is establishe
Page 193 and 194: 180 International regulations on th
Page 195 and 196: 182 • The participating States ag
Page 197 and 198: 184 The Convention on Plastic Explo
Page 199 and 200:
186 5.3.1 European Joint Action The
Page 201 and 202:
188 years in July 2001. In December
Page 203 and 204:
190 • States must make efforts to
Page 205 and 206:
192 a greater degree of harmonizati
Page 207 and 208:
194 this may lead to the undesirabl
Page 209 and 210:
196 28 Or at least difficult or imp
Page 211 and 212:
198 49 Speech by Mr. Koffi Adjouman
Page 213 and 214:
200 in its capacity as President of
Page 215 and 216:
202 Table 1: Scope of the Seven Pri
Page 217 and 218:
204 Table 1 (continued) Characteris
Page 219 and 220:
206 Characteristics of the marking
Page 221 and 222:
208 Characteristics of the marking
Page 223 and 224:
210 Characteristics of the recordke
Page 225 and 226:
212 Characteristics of the record-k
Page 227 and 228:
214 Table 4: Comparison of the Stan
Page 229 and 230:
216 Characteristics of the exchange
Page 231:
218
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?