Statement by

Mr. Heidar Ali Balouji

First Counsellor

Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

on behalf of Bolivia, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela

At the Seventh 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 (PoA)

On Agenda Item 6 “Implementation of PoA”

New York, 26 July 2021

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Mr. Chair,

At the outset, on behalf of Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela, and Iran, I would like to congratulate your election and other bureau members. Please rest assured of our full support and cooperation for a successful ending of this meeting.

We have always supported the PoA and the ITI. We are of the view that the efficient, complete, and indiscriminate implementation of these instruments as political, nonbinding, and voluntary documents, can help mitigate the negative consequences of illicit trade of SALWs on human life and sustainable, social and economic development of UN Member States.

The illicit trade of SALWs has a close relation to terrorist activities, money laundering, transnational organized crimes, and drug trafficking. Hence, we have established some necessary infrastructures to prevent and combat the illicit trade in SALWs in line with the ITI, in a timely and reliable manner.

Ahead of the needed negotiation on the outcome document of the BMS 7, we would like to highlight the following principled positions for our delegations, based on which we will introduce our proposals to the document.

1. The valuable practice of decision-making by consensus should be preserved and applied in this meeting to all procedural and substantial issues. In this vein, we believe that the non-consensual issues like adding ammunition to the outcome document, and synergy with the non-globally accepted instruments should refrain. Also overemphasizing issues like SDG specific indicators, human rights, and gender approaches within the context of the PoA and the ITI are not necessary. In addition, the language of the document should be consistent with its voluntary and non-binding nature.
2. The BMS7 agenda and especially the agenda item B was finalized subject to the condition that it would only allow discussing the issues raised by the interested delegations during the meeting and should not be interpreted in any way as a sign of any readiness to include in the outcome of the meeting any provisions that indicate an agreement, even in principle, on the need to establish non-consensual instruments such as a supplementary annex to the ITI. Therefore, we deem it necessary to remove all of the paragraphs raising elements related to this idea as they do not garner consensus.
3. The BMS is a state-driven process, therefore, it is of paramount importance to protect the sovereignty of the States. In this context and as envisaged in the PoA and the ITI, the outcome document should reconfirm the state’s inherent right to individual or collective self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, and the legitimate right of each State to manufacture, import and retain SALWs for its self-defense and security needs. In the same vein, we should keep in mind the prerogative of each State regarding the methods of marking, registration, and tracing of small arms and light weapons.
4. The state's capacity in implementing these documents differ from one to another and so this challenge and other difficulties in implementing the two documents should be dealt with an adequate, sustained, and effective way and by stressing the importance of sustainable capacity-building, financial support, technology, and equipment transfer. In fact, due to its importance, international cooperation should be reflected in the preamble and the relevant parts of the outcome document. After 20 years of implantation of the PoA, the level of international cooperation is yet to be strengthened by the involvement of the developed countries, the private sector, and industry.
5. Last not least, while in some regions, the transferred arms have been used for invading other countries and thus suppressing the civilians, the outcome document should urge to deny the supply of small arms and light weapons where there is an overriding risk that they could be used by foreign invaders as well as the designated terrorist groups and other non-authorized actors.

Thank You!