MIAMI.- The HIM denounced that in the midst of a multitude of global crises and the escalation of armed conflicts, the short firearmssmall and light, remain a silent killer, claiming more than 260,000 lives during 2021, representing 45 percent of all violent deaths.
This was explained by the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, before the Security Council on Friday, citing the latest available figures.
“This amounts to more than 700 people a day, that is, one person dies from small arms every two minutes,” he said, adding that “small arms and light weapons are the weapons of choice to initiate, maintain and exacerbate conflicts, armed violence , terrorism and other forms of organized crime”.
Nakamitsu highlighted the need to adopt complementary approaches to respond to the worsening and complex security threat posed by such weapons and has called for strengthening national and regional frameworks and “translating” global commitments into “tailored measures” at the local level, as well as as well as to establish voluntary national and regional objectives and measure progress towards that end.
“Good practices and lessons learned from successful regional initiatives demonstrate the importance of having robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to measure progress in implementation and inform further programming and policy formulation,” he said, adding that at the same time Whole-of-government approaches that integrate small arms and light weapons control into development, prevention and peacebuilding initiatives are crucial.
Nakamitsu, who also heads the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, highlighted the differential impact on women and called for better quality data to be collected for more accurate analysis. “Doing so would also serve as a basis for the development of evidence-based prevention and protection strategies, as well as the formulation of gender-responsive policies and programming on small arms and light weapons,” she said.
“The Security Council is encouraged to direct UN entities to systematically collect such data, including by registering victims and monitoring incidents of conflict-related sexual violence,” he urged the ambassadors.
The senior official also expressed serious concern about illicit flows of arms and ammunition in violation of arms embargoes. “Illicit arms trafficking and diversion, in violation of arms embargoes ordered by the Security Council, continue to be documented,” she said, noting that this reality demonstrates the continued need to improve enforcement of arms embargoes.
“At the same time, panels of experts from many arms embargo regimes continue to face challenges in identifying the origin and supply chain of seized weapons and ammunition,” he added.
Nakamitsu recalled the Secretary-General’s report on the issue: “In particular, the Council is encouraged to continue to request reports from Member States on the measures they have taken to implement arms embargoes and on their efforts to cooperate and share information with the of experts”.
Source: EUROPA PRESS
