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

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17 • establish and maintain complete national inventories of firearms, ammunition and other related materials held by security forces and other State bodies (Article 8.a); • incorporate as a matter of priority in their national laws the regulation and centralized registration of all civilian owned firearms in their territories (Article 5.3); • consider a coordinated review of national procedures and criteria for issuing and withdrawing of firearm licenses and establishing and maintaining national electronic data-bases of licensed firearms, firearm owners, and commercial firearms traders within their territories (Article 7); • improve the capacity of police, customs, border guards, the military, the judiciary and other relevant agencies to …. establish and improve national data-bases (Article 6.b); • establish national firearms databases to facilitate the exchange of information on firearms imports, exports and transfers (Article 16.b). SADC States have thus committed themselves to substantially strengthening registration, record-keeping and information exchange systems for SALW. Currently, only Namibia and South Africa have electronic record-keeping systems, with other countries in the region relying on the manual, paper-based variety. However, the new central Firearms Register developed by South Africa has been designed so that other countries in Southern Africa can use it as well. 29 Regional cooperation of this kind is not unique. Two important initiatives are now underway in the Americas, involving the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), and the UN Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean in Lima (UNLiREC). The first builds on an OAS General Assembly resolution to counter the proliferation and illicit trafficking in SALW, 30 and involves the development of harmonized national legislation and regulations throughout the OAS region. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has provided software for an Internet-based system of registration and record-keeping called SALSA (Small Arms and Light Weapons Administration). 31 Weapons dealers will be required to register with SALSA and, once authorized, will be able to record details of individual weapons transfers on-line via secure Internet channels. The second initiative is the establishment of a “Regional Clearing-House Project on Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives”. One
18 component of this project is to identify and record details of seized illicit weapons caches prior to their destruction, and then use such information in tracing sources of illicit supply. Similarly, in 1991, the member States of the EU agreed to introduce a harmonized system to license the movement of firearms and ammunition between them. 32 As a supporting measure, they established the Weapons Information Exchange System (WIES) in order to share information about sales and transfers of firearms and ammunition within the EU. Surprisingly, however, this system remains entirely paper driven and reliant on the exchange of faxes, which are rarely translated into the language of the receiving State. It is therefore relatively ineffective. Initiatives to develop coordinated and linked databases at the regional level, such as those described in southern Africa, the Americas and the EU, are becoming recognized as good practice and need further assistance and encouragement. Some important global norms have therefore been established in relation to record-keeping for SALW. Yet they have significant weaknesses. For example, a commitment to maintain records for “at least ten years” is plainly unsatisfactory in view of the typical lifetimes of several decades of small arms. In this context, the emerging international norm that such records should be maintained “for as long as possible” is also problematic and vague. There is little practical reason why records should not be maintained indefinitely, particularly as computerization gains ground. Commitments to ensure effective management of military stocks need to be developed to global standards requiring reliable inventories of official stocks. Moreover, international practices and norms remain inadequate with respect to record-keeping for parts, components, ammunition and explosives, with most regions so far unable to agree on effective standards in these areas. 1.5 SYSTEMS FOR SALW TRACING 1.5.1 Introduction At its core, a tracing system is an identification, data collection and retrieval system. Information about weapons, such as their serial number
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: 16 The UN Firearms Protocol, in its
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
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67 explosives belts and dozens of t
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69 This data provides an interestin
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71 weapons belonging to illicit cir
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73 imagine being able to effectivel
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75 case of Switzerland, it would be
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77 electronics in animal identifica
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79 based our reflection on goals fo
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81 10 Small Arms Survey, Annuaire s
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APPENDIX 1 83
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APPENDIX 3 85
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87 the army weapon is capable of au
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90 significance, hence in general t
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92 3.1.2 Sanitization Removal or ob
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94 Chinese Type 56-1 Unique Identif
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96 verify that the imported weapons
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98 weapons. There are risks involve
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100 China Type 56 Russia AK47 Russi
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102 channels, with the protection o
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104 3.1.9 Comments Countries seekin
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106 as a result, potentially tip-of
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108 2. All markings must be made pe
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110 shared encryption standard. The
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112 Domestic record-keeping varies
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114 Nevertheless, whilst the Wassen
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116 individual weapon, should as a
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118 • “Consolidation”—4 x 2
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120 With the scope of the Protocol
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122 The South African authorities a
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124 • (Tracing) Details of all st
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126 tracing Chinese weapons. Conseq
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128 circulating information by fax
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130 Tracing requests are normally c
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132 encourage countries along the t
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134 close enough to provide adequat
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136 3. If Interpol is not up to the
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138 which restrict the amount of in
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140 9 It was notable during negotia
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142
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144 There are other reasons as well
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146 Laws Firearms are a durable com
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148 This last point should not be u
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150 the future a firearm tracing qu
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152 There are several important ele
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154 Canada, nearly all transfers re
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156 accuracy and man-hour effective
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158 industry practices. An effectiv
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160
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162 manner in national (and possibl
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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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