It is my great honour to be invited to this Side Event at the Ministerial Council of OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-op

Statement by H.E.Dr. Kuniko INOGUCHI

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Japan

to the Conference on Disarmament

At the Side Event at the Ministerial Council

Launch of the Handbook of Best Practices Guides

On Small Arms and Light Weapons(SALW)

Euro Foyer, MECC

1 December 2003

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

（expressing gratitude to organizers）

It is my great honour, as Chair of the United Nations First Biennial Meeting of States to Consider the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, which was held from 7 to 11 July this year in New York, to address this distinguished audience in Maastricht. First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Secretariat of the OSCE who organized this Side Event on the occasion of the Ministerial Council of OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) to launch the handbook of Best Practice Guides on Small Arms and Light Weapons. My appreciation also goes to the Government of Netherlands who hosted 11^th Ministerial Council of the OSCE.

(Commitment by OSCE)

OSCE took indeed a leading role in the field of SALW. For example, the OSCE Document on SALW (FSC.DOC/01/00), which was agreed by the Forum for Security Co-operation(FSC) on 24 November 2001, provided us many useful ideas especially in relation to marking and tracing, export import criteria, information exchange mechanism etc. The implementation of these norms, principles and measures contained in the OSCE Document contributed substantially to the implementation of the UN Programme of Action and this also leads to the enhancement of international standards and transparency measures in the fields of SALW. OSCE should be proud of this invaluable achievement.

(gratitude for BMS reporting)

As Chair of the First UN Biennial Meeting, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the OSCE for their useful report back on this achievement to that Meeting. OSCE’s report shows that the OSCE is a good model for regional organization’s implementation of the Programme of Action.

(Best practice guide)

According to that OSCE’s report to the Biennial Meeting, “The Best Practice Guides”, which have been launched today, cover eight important areas such as

-Controls over manufacture

-Marking and record keeping

-Controls over export

-Controls over brokering activities

-Definitions and indicators of a surplus

-Destruction techniques

-Small arms measures as part of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.

I am sure that these guides will contribute to current issues, which the international community is tackling. For example, the guide on “Marking and recording keeping will bring a useful input for next years open-ended working group on tracing.

(First Biennial Meeting of States)

Lastly I would now like to take this occasion, in my capacity as Chair of the Biennial Meeting of States, to present an overview of the main objectives and achievements of the Meeting.

As we all know, the primary objective of the Meeting was to offer an opportunity for States to share their experience of the first two years of implementation of the Programme of Action. But the Meeting went beyond this objective, in that it became a forum for strengthening existing partnerships and building new ones among States, international and regional organizations and civil society, in the common struggle against the illicit trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its aspects.

This meeting provided an excellent opportunity to assess both the progress that has been made and the obstacles that have confronted us in implementing the PoA in the last two years since its adoption, helping to enhance our collective sense of ownership and responsibility for the process we initiated in July 2001. It also offered States the opportunity to build momentum toward mustering both the political will and the professional competence needed to combat the problem. The Meeting also contributed to strengthening the partnerships for action established through a variety of international assistance and cooperation initiatives.

The Meeting clearly demonstrated that multilateralism matters and that we can make it work. The success of the Meeting reaffirmed the importance of multilateral cooperation and demonstrated to the international community that multilateralism in the area of small arms disarmament is indeed functioning well. I believe this Meeting marked an important milestone in strengthening the concerted efforts of the international community towards reducing the number of victims in the field. It is my fervent wish that all States will make full use of every opportunity to reinforce their commitment to the PoA and, building on the results of this Meeting, take concrete steps to strengthen national, regional and global efforts to eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects in the lead-up to the second Biennial Meeting in 2005 and the second United Nations Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in 2006.

(Closing)

Finally, once again, we would like to express my heartfelt gratitude your cooperation.

Thank you very much.