This meeting was hosted by the Italian Mission to the United Nations and included speakers that lead in Italy’s prevention of trade of SALW as well as speakers from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The UNODC speakers mentioned the goal should be to quantify, characterize, and monitor the illicit arms flow. A huge drawback to this is that proper data collection and management in not part of the culture of developing states. This discrepancy needs to be addressed.
The UNODC specialists stressed three parts to battle the trade of small arms and light weapons: data collection, technical assistance, and champion country initiative. Data collection includes gathering data on arms trafficking and related crimes and technical assistance means that all states to have the needed tools to trace arms. Thirdly, champion country initiative means to continue to conduct national studies on possible links. The Italian Representatives agreed explaining possible connectors to arms trade such as real estate assets associated with organized crime and fiscal fraud.
The meeting then moved to the Italian Representatives, who work with the Italian government, sharing advice on how to tackle this issue. Mr.Pasquali recommended studying past criminal cases which would strengthen detection practices. Also, there needs to be collaboration with national and international agencies such as the national Revenue and Customs agency. Furthermore, the experience of the Italian Mission and UNODC allowed for concrete strategies on the implementation of prevents trade of small arms and light weapons.
Date/Location: Friday 22th June 2018; 13:15 to 14:30; Conference Room 9, United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY
Speakers:
Mr.Inigo Lambertini, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations
Mr.Matteo Pasquali, Deputy Representative of UNODC
Ms.Simonette Grassi,Consultant at UN Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC)
Mr.Valerio Cendali Pignatelli, Representative of Italy
Mr.Frank Meeussen, Representative of the European Union
Written by: WIT Representative Mariam Elsaker
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