Inside ASEAN Column
Report on the Regional Seminar of the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons for Parliaments in Southeast Asia, under the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly 7-8 May 2018, Jakarta, the Republic of Indonesia
Column: Inside ASEAN
Written by Bureau of Inter-Parliamentary Organizations,
the Secretariat of the House of Representatives
Translated by Bureau of Foreign Languages,
the Secretariat of the Senate
Report on the Regional Seminar of the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons for Parliaments in Southeast Asia
Under the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly
7 – 8 May 2018
Jakarta, the Republic of Indonesia
The delegation of the National Legislative Assembly, led by Gen. Paichayon Khatancharoen, Member of the National Legislative Assembly and Head of Delegation, and Gen. Nipat Thonglek, Member of the National Legislative Assembly, participated in the regional seminar of the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PFSALW) for parliaments in Southeast Asia under the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) between 7 – 8 May 2018 in Jakarta, the Republic of Indonesia. The aforesaid seminar was organized by PFSALW, supported by the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and Trust Facility Supporting Cooperation on Arms Regulation (UNSCAR). The objectives are to increase participation and understanding of the legislative branch on Arms Trade Treaty and United Nations Programme of Action (UNPoA) on small arms and light weapons in all aspects and also support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially goal 16, to promote peace and have equal accessibility to justice system, and sub goal 4, to reduce arms trafficking.
4 AIPA member countries, namely the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Kingdom of Thailand, participated in this seminar. Other participants include representatives from international organizations responsible for reducing weapons and building cooperation to tackle problems and violence related to small arms and light weapons, such as UNODA, United Nations Development Program, UNWOMEN, Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and representatives from non-governmental organizations related to weapon reduction such as Centre for Armed Violence Reduction (CAVR).
The opening ceremony of the seminar was held on 7 May 2018. Mr. Isra Sunthornvut, Secretary General of AIPA, mentioned that this regional seminar was initiated by AIPA and PFSALW, which highlights problems, violence and impacts originated from the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Southeast Asia.
This seminar was also an initiative to exchange ideas on the problems. Mrs. Karen Olofsson, Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons, presented recent statistics showing small arms and light weapons are the main cause of violence and losses of lives and properties of world population, which stems from illicit weaponry trade, unsuccessful international treaty and agreement enforcement and also lack of awareness. Furthermore, this seminar aimed to collect ideas from Southeast Asian parliaments to compile recommendations and propose a report to the Preparatory Step to the United Nations Program of Action on Small Arms: UNPoA 3rd Review Conference on 18 – 29 June 2018 in New York City, United States of America.
Part 1: The Implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goal 16.4.2. This implementation proposes connectivity and emphasizes practices in accordance with sustainable development related to small arms and light weapons. Mr. Ivor Fung, representative from UNODA, highlighted the importance of factors that will support and have an effect to achieve SDGs, prevention and proliferation of small weapons and light arms and also follow-up weaponry seizure and create indicators related to illicit weaponry trade.
Furthermore, Gen. Nipat Thonglek, representative from the National Legislative Assembly, stressed small arms and light weapons correlate to SDGs and that every party needs to fully prioritize and cooperate with one another to prevent and solve this problem. Without peace and security, it is hard to achieve the SDGs. Thailand therefore focuses on creating a harmonious society and participate with every party by having organizations from the public sector as the center to coordinate cooperation and monitor implementation under the agenda of the 16 SDGs. Moreover, Thailand focuses on conforming domestic laws to international laws and regulations. Thailand would like to praise both AIPA and PFSALW on organizing this regional seminar for the first time being an important initiation leading to future cooperation.
Part 2: Women in Peace and Security – Strengthening the Gender Perspective in the Parliamentary Action towards the Prevention and Reduction of SALW Related Violence. Dr. Sabine Machl, representative from UNWOMEN Indonesia, informed the effort to emphasize and increase the role of women to prevent and retaliate extremism, which will be done simultaneously with increasing competitiveness and participation of women in every aspect in political, economic and social areas. Supporting gender equality and equal participation during the policy-making and decision process will empower women to be accepted and reduce gender violence. Nevertheless, the most important factor to achieve the aforesaid goals is to change the perspectives and beliefs of society and culture related to women’s role in society.
Gen. Paichayon Khatancharoen, head of the delegation of the National Legislative Assembly, presented Thailand’s performance. Thailand has the policy that emphasizes connectivity between maintaining and strengthening peace with sustainable development, which also include women’s role in the peace-making process. The country prioritizes the agenda on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) to promote women’s role and participation in the peace-making, preservation and promotion of peace and help restore countries in conflict by realizing the importance and potential of women in peace negotiation and conflict resolution. Promoting women’s role and creating gender equality between women and men is an important factor to promote women in every social aspect. Successful stories include women’s participation to promote and strengthen peace and security and how Thailand had our first female Prime Minister. Furthermore, there is an increase in proportion of women in every social areas in Thailand, such as women’s participation during decision process, women in executive positions and having women’s representative from Thailand in United Nations Peacekeeping, equating to 6 per cent, whereas the average women’s participation in United Nations Peacekeeping only equates to 3 per cent. The National Legislative Assembly have supported and gone through a variety of channels to support women’s role, such as to be aware of gender’s perspective and equality, encourage women’s role in economic and social sector, promote women’s right and participation in peace-making and stop conflicts including violence from conventional weapons. These success stories have been supported by the social committees of the National Legislative Assembly, which realizes the importance and will continue to support women’s role in the future.
Part 3: International Conventional Arms Regulation Instrument – Implementation and Universalization of the ATT, the UNPoA and the SDG 16.4.2. Ms. Spyridoula A. Metallinou, expert from Global Firearms Program, United Nations, presented the connectivity of arms trafficking and other transnational crimes, namely terrorism, human trafficking, transnational arms trafficking, violence from crimes, cybercrime, pirates and illegal fishing and wildlife endangerment. Mr. Deepayan Basu Ray, Director of Centre for Armed Violence Reduction (CAVR), then presented the conflicted relationship that if there cannot be a reduction of proliferation of illicit weaponry trade, which is the source of violence, it will have an effect on development making it a threat to society. Therefore, Member of Parliament’s role should be supporting the effort to tackle the aforesaid threat in accordance to the 3 procedures, namely 1) connecting law and evaluation 2) pursuing political commitment and intent and 3) creating the sense of responsibilities.
Gen. Nipat Thonglek, representative of the National Legislative Assembly, continued on the matter of cooperation and practice under international treaties regarding small arms and light weapons. Thailand has signed Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) since 2013 and plans to ratify the aforesaid treaty in the near future. Currently, Thailand is amending the law to conform to the standard and meet details in ATT. While acting in accordance with the United Nations Programme of Action (UNPoA) on small arms and light weapons and achieving SDG 16.4, Thailand have regularly participated in meetings, written annual reports and established Sub-Commission consisting members from different sectors to be responsible in amending laws and proposing activities related to the Programme of Action, and also monitor the outcome of seizing and controlling financial movement of arms trade. Therefore, all the activities show Thailand’s effort, intention and transparency in acting in accordance with the procedure related to the small arms and light weapons problems. Important obstacle to achieve SDG 16.4 is the complexity of the problem on small arms and light weapons trade and information management. To solve the said problem, one must have the determination and cooperation with the public sector to act together and exchange experiences and information. Therefore, the delegation of the National Legislative Assembly proposed a recommendation to develop cooperation regarding the aforesaid matter to increase efficiency, namely to 1) establish networks and develop personnel by providing information on handling light arms and small weapons problems and 2) exchange information and experience to solve the problem using examples that are successful and from related organizations.
Part 4: SALW related Violence and Private Military and Security Companies. Ms. Spyridoula A. Metallinou, Representative of Global Firearms Program, United Nations, presented information related to private military and security companies on small arms and light weapons. Ms. Metallinou affirms the necessity to legally establish this business and create a system in order to be able to verify and control weapons movement legally and transparently, preventing weapons to be in the hands of ill-willed people.
Either way, illicit weapons trade in the region happens from wars and conflicts within the region, for example terrorism and border division, which creates demand and supply of weapon merchandise. In the end, Gen. Nipat Thonglek, representative from the National Legislative Assembly, presented information on the illicit weapons trafficking in Southeast Asia region in the meeting.
Part 5 and Part 6: Legislative Tools/Instruments for an Improved SALW related Violence Prevention and Reduction and Exchange of Parliamentary Experience on Agenda 2030, ATT and UNPoA. The National Legislative Assembly’s delegation, proposed legislative recommendation to solve small arms and light weapons problems, namely to 1) fasten signing to be committed and ratify international treaties on small and light weapons, 2) amend and enact laws related to protect and combat small arms and light weapons problems and 3) create awareness of the role of Members of Parliament. Therefore, the procedure should be efficient with careful monitoring from United Nations using the top-down approach, consider annual activity report, conduct evaluation and help through specialized channels, including financial, information management, experience exchanges and personnel development related channels, which have 3 important obstacles, namely 1) people’s poverty, 2) post-war management and 3) creating understanding in the society.
Seminar summary: The discussion and adoption of a parliamentary action on SDG 16, ATT and UNPoA have been accepted by participants, including the responsibility and role of the legislative branch to exercise 3 powers, as follow.
Legislation: to prioritize signing and ratifying international treaties such as ATT and UNPoA, conform to international laws, utilize resolutions of United Nations as a reference and guideline to enact laws in member countries to conform to one another, communicate officially between legislative and administrative branches to support law enactments on small arms and light weapons, build cooperation between organizations and include other organizations, establish international committees and start enacting laws on small arms and light weapons.
Raising Awareness: to prioritize on controlling small arms and light weapons, such as controlling the type of weapons allowed to be used in military companies, give knowledge to the people to increase understanding on the rules and procedure of the laws related to controlling guns, emphasize the importance of signing and ratifying ATT for Members of Parliaments, create projects to eradicate small and light weapons lasting 1 – 2 years under the guidelines of the United Nations, encourage United Nations member countries to emphasize education regarding illegal weapons and bombs left from wars, educate people from remote areas on the characteristics of small and light weapon, bombs and booby traps and chemical weapons left from war, build awareness through newspapers of the legislative branch and utilize public advice.
Oversight: to create confidence for the works of Council of Ministers through the roles of the legislative branch under the monitoring and balancing the power to analyze and evaluate the budget procedure related to small arms and light weapons, establish international Programme of Action on small and light weapons, monitor and enforce related laws, cooperate with United Nations organs in countries as it is a channel to support evaluating activities on enforcing laws related to small arms and light weapons and present outcomes of meetings or seminars related to small arms and light weapons for parliaments to acknowledge.
The outcome of the seminar and these recommendations will be sources of a report to propose to Preparatory Step to the United Nations Program of Action on Small Arms: UNPoA 3rd Review Conference that well be held between 18 – 29 June 2018 in New York City, United States of America.
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