Argentina presented proposals to improve its arms control process

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Argentine government presented proposals to the United Nations (UN) to “improve small arms and light weapons transfer processes,” and also called for “reducing the difficulties and administrative burdens linked to the required reports” and “making effective the exchange of information and good practices”, as was officially reported.

Within the framework of the 8th Biennial Meeting of States on the United Nations Program of Action (PoA) that takes place from the 27th of this month to the 1st of July in New York, the national delegation presented this Wednesday for the first time a document of work on the state of the situation of the conformation and operation of the Argentine National System of Controlled Materials.

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Regarding the destruction of weapons and voluntary disarmament, Argentina stressed that “this policy constitutes the central axis in arms control since it includes their effective elimination from illegal markets and society”.

The Argentine delegation proposed implementing a mechanism for the exchange and systematization of official information on documentation and procedures, among other relevant aspects, that “allow streamlining and improving national controls for tracking transfers of firearms and controlled materials”.

Likewise, it presented the advances and challenges of implementing control policies for the proliferation of weapons and other controlled materials, which Argentina “has managed to achieve for more than 20 years, in a robust and outstanding system at the international level,” according to an official statement.

The Argentine delegation to the UN was made up of the deputy director of the National Agency for Controlled Materials (ANMaC), Carlos Fernández; the Institutional Cooperation coordinator of that organization, Ignacio Sacchetti; the counselor of the Argentine Mission to the UN, Emmanuel Guerra; and Foreign Ministry officials.

With a joint effort between the ANMaC and the Directorate for International Security, Nuclear and Space Affairs (DIGAN) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two work proposals were presented to promote international cooperation actions to improve the implementation of instruments for global disarmament.

According to the initiatives proposed by Argentina, the need to “strengthen gender assessments in the PoA and the International Tracing Instrument” was highlighted.

Another point is “the strengthening of the existing synergy and complementarity between the legal mechanisms of different regional and subregional organizations, to reduce the difficulties and administrative burdens linked to the reports required by each instrument, as well as making the exchange of information and good practices”.

On the other hand, these initiatives “reinforced the country’s commitment to marking ammunition and the development of international tracking mechanisms”.

It also invited the states parties to comply with the presentation of the report on the United Nations Program of Action (PoA); although it is voluntary, Argentina “has always sent it to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs Nations (UNODA)”, since it considers that said report “constitutes a control and evaluation mechanism on international commitments”.

Finally, Argentina highlighted the role played by technologies in the field of firearms and ammunition and proposed the creation of a working group made up of technicians to address the issue.

The ANMaC was invited to speak at the side event of the Organization of American States (OAS), “Support for the Implementation of the PoA. A debate between Member States of the OAS and two Initiatives of the European Union”.

The Program of Action and the International Tracing Instrument for the prevention, combat, and eradication of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons of the UN (UNPoA) was created in 2001 and 2005 consecutively, and the member states convene meetings every two years.