Statement by H.E. Gary Quinlan, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, as delivered on 23 July 2010.
(as delivered)
Mr Chair
My delegation would like to express our appreciation for your leadership of the Preparatory Committee. You have very strategically and persuasively guided our work over the past two weeks in a manner that has facilitated open exchanges of ideas, positions and perspectives.
As our French colleague has said our meeting is transitional. But, very importantly, it has moved the debate regarding the Treaty from the simply declaratory or deliberative to a more focussed examination of what a Treaty should look like. Delegations have begun the process of considering different positions on the elements of an ATT and identifying areas of convergence.
Your own paper is decisive in this. And delegations are in the positive situation of being able to return to capitals with your sketch of the elements of an ATT, a detailed description of the Treaty’s principles and an enumeration of the Treaty’s goals and objectives.
We also have the benefit of the Facilitator’s summaries of the discussions held on the key topics of scope, parameters and implementation and application. And I want to acknowledge my colleagues from Trinidad and Tobago and Egypt in their role as fellow co-Facilitators. The topics are at the heart of the Treaty and we think we have effectively used the time available to share our views in detail.
Naturally your papers and the Facilitator’s summaries reflect the debate and do not prejudice any delegations’ positions. We think they are a fair compilation of the ideas raised. They should help us in understanding others’ perspectives and in further developing our own national position. We will work on them intersessionally.
Mr Chair
In our view, the first two weeks of the Preparatory Committee have been a success. We have made a very good start. In several ways, progress has exceeded our expectations.
We have heard from several delegations that many of the issues explored in detail these last two weeks are complex and on which it will be difficult to achieve progress. Issues like scope, parameters and implementation are indeed complex and will require thorough exploration by delegations, but we believe they are fundamentally resolvable. And certainly my own delegation is committed to that purpose.
We agree with our Japanese colleague that we should approach the task creatively. Mr Chair, we encourage all participants to take advantage of intersessional opportunities to do our homework and also to further consult on the ATT. One such opportunity will be the Boston Symposium on the Arms Trade Treaty to be held 28-30 September. Invitations to the Symposium have been circulated to all member states this morning. We also welcome future workshops to be organised by UNIDIR and we appreciate its contribution. We look forward to continuing to share ideas with delegations, and you Mr Chair, on those occasions.
We appreciate the contributions of civil society organisations to the debate, their expertise and efforts to raise our understanding of the terrible impact and consequences of illicit and irresponsible arms trade. We look forward to their ongoing role.
Mr Chair
As we said on the first day of this Committee, the irresponsible and illicit transfer of conventional arms, their components and ammunition is of such serious and pressing concern that it can only be adequately address through the establishment of high common standards through a legally binding multilateral treaty. We will continue to be a robust supporter of that objective.
There have been several references to history this morning. History is one thing, Mr Chair, but progress is another. Progress is made by people who do things for the first time. Let us all commit to making progress by ensuring we conclude an Arms Trade Treaty.
Thank you.