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Mr Chairman,
While weapons of mass destruction understandably dominate today’s headlines and the concerns of Member States, this class of weapons should not distract the international community’s attention from the deaths, injuries and injustices that are caused every day by the illegal use and misuse of conventional weapons. In a number of forums, New Zealand continues to work towards strengthening international humanitarian law and reducing the excessive and unnecessary harm caused by conventional weapons.
On small arms, we strongly support the statement made by the Ambassador of Samoa on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum. While much of our work on small arms continues to be focused on preventing gun violence in the Pacific, we are increasingly aware of the lack of binding international controls on small arms trade that continues to fuel armed conflicts around the world. For this reason, New Zealand will be lending its full support to the initiative by Oxfam for an arms trade treaty. We commend the work of Oxfam in taking a new approach to stopping the irresponsible transfer of small arms to countries that violate human rights and international humanitarian law.
The Nairobi Summit scheduled to take place later this year will represent a landmark event for the Ottawa Convention banning the use of anti-personnel mines. The universalisation of the Convention, mobilisation of resources for mine action, increased understanding and attention to the problems faced by victims and the strength of the norm against the use of anti-personnel mines will stand as testimony to the commitment of States Parties, international organisations and non-governmental organisations towards realising the objective of a world free of anti-personnel mines.
New Zealand continues to strongly support work underway in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons – that is the CCW. Last year we welcomed the agreement to the Fifth Protocol to the CCW addressing explosive remnants of war. The Fifth Protocol broke new ground by recognising that parties to a conflict have an obligation to take responsibility for the munitions they have deployed and to take measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians. New Zealand is currently working towards ratification of that Protocol. We believe that the ongoing relevance of the CCW will be dependent on its response to the concern that is being voiced increasingly strongly by the international community on the unnecessary suffering caused by submunitions to civilians.
