Strong new measures to tighten regulations on arms trade estimated at $100 billion worldwide is expected to be made during the first Conference of States Parties (CSP) for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in Cancun, Mexico this week.
Campaigners say the Pacific has a critical role to play at the first conference where representatives from around 120 states including Palau, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and Samoa meeting to make practical decisions on how to ensure the new treaty which entered into force in December 2014, transforms the global arms trade and save lives for years to come.
Tonga is neither a state party nor a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty.
Arms Control Manager Laura Spano of the Pacific Small Arms Action Group as the regional coordinator for the Control Arms Coalition, the global civil society network that led the decade long campaign for the ATT, is also attending the Cancun conference.
Campaigners for the coalition fear negotiators attending the four-day meeting may fail to maximize this chance to create the highest standards, which will ensure the ATT, will be robustly implemented. They are urging the Government of Mexico, the chair of the conference to take a tough approach to negotiations to ensure decisions at the conference radically transform the global arms trade and prevent future crises around the world, including in the Pacific.
She said the Pacific will play a large role in preserving the peaceful societies that already exist ensuring their hard work to control arms continues.
“Arms in the Pacific have recently intensified tribal tensions. The treaty will therefore also play a role in preventing violence in Pacific states, such as Papua New Guinea from increasing.”
“If Pacific states fail to ratify the treaty, the region could become a hotspot for arms dealers and other illicit commodities. We therefore, call on all Pacific states to learn from other small islands states, most specifically the Caribbean who experience armed violence and avoid large flows of weapons in the region by ratifying/acceding the treaty,” she said.
Director of the Control Arms Coalition Anna Macdonald said no one should forget the horror that armed violence is causing around the world. This conference comes at a critical moment and decisions taken in Cancun will dictate how the treaty is implemented for years to come, she said.
ATT currently has 130 signatories, 72 countries have ratified including three Pacific states, New Zealand, Australia and Samoa while signatories Vanuatu, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu and Palau have not yet ratified the treaty.