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

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point of diversion, thus inhibiting illicit diversion for fear of subsequent
exposure.
Whilst in theory such a measure may appear obvious, in practice it is
far from trivial. Thousands upon thousands of weapons have to be so
marked—and in such a way that the marks cannot be readily erased. More
importantly, appropriate databases have to be maintained and access to
those databases has to balance the need for information-sharing with
concerns about commercial confidentiality. Different languages and
different manufacturing traditions further complicate the whole process.
Despite these technical and practical obstacles, following the 2001
United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light
Weapons in all its Aspects, the United Nations established a Group of
Governmental Experts on Tracing Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, and
the governments of France and Switzerland began a consultative process to
prepare for future negotiations for an international instrument on tracing
and marking of small arms and light weapons.
In order to assist these international efforts, the Small Arms Survey and
UNIDIR undertook a technical study on the scope and implications of a
tracing mechanism for small arms and light weapons.
The results of this technical study are contained in this report.
We are immensely grateful to the contributing authors: Ilhan Berkol,
Owen Greene, Michael Hallowes, Frédéric Schütz, Gary Thomas and
Michel Wéry, for their dedication and intellectual contributions to the
study. Our gratitude goes to the governments of France and Switzerland for
funding the study and to key individuals within the governments for their
commitment and substantive contributions to the work. We thank
Ambassador Rakesh Sood of India and Chair of the UN Expert group for his
time and participation in discussions along with Nadia Fischer, Olivier
Guerot, René Haug and Stefano Toscano. It must be said however that the
opinions expressed in the papers are those of the authors and the authors
alone.
Special thanks go also to our colleagues on the management team—
Peter Batchelor and Christophe Carle—and to Glenn McDonald and
Nicolas Florquin for their hard work in reading and editing and getting this