MUNoH 2018

Description of the issue:

The global gun trade has become one of the most growing businesses since 2000. It has shown that

handling a conflict is often more important for a countries political reputation than the ability to

stand trial. For that the governments themselves need to improve a countries fire power. In relation

to that, many countries are trying to show as much power as possible by purchase as much weapons

as possible. This again results in so called "arms races", where countries unofficially compete

against each other in terms of gun power. Examples would be Middle Eastern countries like Saudi

Arabia or Qatar who imported in 2012-16 over 200% more than they did from 2007-11.

Furthermore, weapons are important export goods for

many countries. In this category the US is dominating the

market by exporting weapons to more than 100 countries.

Also, their export grew from 2008 to 2015 by 42%. Other

countries like China supply Western countries with

warships or South-Korea who mostly export warships and

aircrafts to Latin American countries.

However, around 20% of the global arms trade is illegal

arms trade. Mostly small arms and light weapons are sold.

Small arms are including weapons such as “revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines,

assault riffles, sub-machine guns and light machine guns”. Weapons like “heavy machine guns,

hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, portable anti-

tank guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-tank missile and rocket systems; portable

launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS); and mortars of calibers of less than 100

mm” fall under the category of light weapons. (Source: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-

and-markets/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-1.pdf).

Forum: 1st CommitteeIssue: Taking legal measures to ensure safety in gun trading

Student Officer: Oskar Ensinger

Position President of the General Assembly

Mail: 1st@munoh.de

This graph shows the ten largest exporters of global arms trade.

Forum: 1st CommitteeIssue: Taking legal measures to ensure safety in gun trading

Student Officer: Oskar Ensinger

Position President of the General Assembly

Mail: 1st@munoh.de

Forum: 1st CommitteeIssue: Taking legal measures to ensure safety in gun trading

Student Officer: Oskar Ensinger

Position President of the General Assembly

Mail: 1st@munoh.de

Forum: 1st CommitteeIssue: Taking legal measures to ensure safety in gun trading

Student Officer: Oskar Ensinger

Position President of the General Assembly

Mail: 1st@munoh.de

Forum: 1st CommitteeIssue: Taking legal measures to ensure safety in gun trading

Student Officer: Oskar Ensinger

Position President of the General Assembly

Mail: 1st@munoh.de

MUNoH 2018

Less Developed Countries (LEDCs) with a weak, instable and corrupted government have the most

problems with illicit arms trade. Most governments lack the funds to create programs to effectively

combat social consequences of the illegal arms trade. Programs that are already in place are

extremely ineffective. Furthermore, the illegal arms trade is such a growing issue that many

governments are completely unequipped to even begin to tackle the problem. There are many

aspects that go into the issue of arms trafficking: producing weapons, distributing weapons, and

utilizing weapons. Weaponry has an incredible high demand, so any misstep in creating a solution

to help reduce the illegal arms trade could lead to greater harm in these nations. Many private

citizens are greatly averse to any form of government intervention with their firearms; citizens may

not feel safe without the protection they may feel from them or may not want to have their personal

property regulated. Corruption on all levels of the issue (national, regional, etc.) displays immense

prevalence. The illegal arms trade is often aided and perpetuated by people in positions of power

working for their own agenda. If there were to be an institution of effective regulation, the odds of it

being completely derailed by corruption is highly likely.

Background information:

An example by South and Central America:

Small arms and gun violence represent the most dramatic threat to public safety in Latin America

and the Caribbean. After decades of uncontrolled proliferation, at least 45 million to 80 million

small arms and light weapons are circulating throughout the region.

Gunshots kill between 73,000 and 90,000 people each year in Latin America, and guns are the

leading cause of death among Latin Americans between the ages of 15 and 44, according to World

Health Organization estimates.

Central American countries have been historically characterized by conditions of persistent poverty,

inequality, and unemployment. In fact, countries in the region, except Costa Rica and Panama, have

a low and medium level of income with increasing rates of population below the poverty line.

According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes findings, these characteristics are

relevant variables, yet not determinant, for explaining the alarming levels of violence and homicide

rates in this region.

MUNoH 2018

Moreover, these countries, with the exception of Belize and Costa Rica, have histories of armed

conflicts and dictatorships, with ineffective post-conflict or transition processes from war to peace.

Therefore, there is a legacy of conflict and authoritarian rule that have imposed obstacles for the

consolidation of democratic institutions and the rule of law. In fact, one specific consequence of this

legacy armed conflicts and dictatorships is the widespread proliferation of illicit firearms in the

region, as well as a general tendency to the violent resolution of social impasses. The isthmus,

through the past twenty years, has become a major transshipment point for illicit drugs from South

American countries to the United States. As a result, the situation of domestic and transnational

security has heavily deteriorated in Central America, while local gangs and other criminal groups

have expanded their activities and the urban violence has increased. In the “northern triangle” of El

Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, this situation has translated into some of the highest homicide

rates in the world.

Currently, military and police stockpiles in Honduras, El

Salvador, and Guatemala have been identified as the largest

sources of illegal firearms in the region, 24 a fact that points

out that

(1) central American countries are still the primary

sources or entrance points of trafficked guns in the

continent and

(2) there is a relevant involvement of military officials

in arms trafficking across Central America.

However, the sources of handguns are entirely different than

those for assault rifles, since most handguns were actually

acquired legally in the United States. These guns are then

illicitly imported and diverted for illicit use. Panama is a key

hotspot in both directions, towards south and north, due to its

allowance of duty-free arms purchases. In fact, North American

weapons can be bought legally in Panama, and then smuggled

to other countries in South and Central America. The United

States are currently the main gun importer in the world.

The regulations and restrictions in Central America related to possession, use and commercial

exchange of firearms depend of each country; however, these laws are usually influenced by the

This graph shows the flow of the weapon traffic (black arrows) through and out the continent, while the red dots represent money laundries of the illegal purchased money. Source: http://newswire.kulmun.be/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/lemondediplo-maps.jpg

MUNoH 2018

international standards. For instance, most of Central American countries ban similar weapons such

as automatic firearms, armor piercing ammunitions and military explosives. In the past decade

(2005-2015) Central American countries have added new regulations to the existing arm control

laws, in order to confront the traffic on arms and ammunitions within the region, and therefore the

insecurity and violence that this traffic is fueling. However, some of the countries are still more

permissive than others, representing an obstacle to the international effort to defy arms trafficking

in the whole region.

Small arms flooded Latin America during the Cold War, most significantly during the Central

American civil wars of the 1980s. Although diverse motivations, channels, and suppliers have had a

hand in their proliferation, the Cold War and its legacies bear most of the responsibility. Both the

United States and the Soviet Union supplied their Latin American allies with mass quantities of

weapons through proxy arms dealers. The Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies sent weapons to

Cuba, which then passed them to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

In response, the United States often provided its Central American allies, like the counter-

revolutionary Nicaraguan Contras, with Soviet weaponry, most notably the AK-47, in order to

maintain official “deniability” of its involvement in the conflicts. The U.S. military allegedly

maintained warehouses of Soviet-bloc weapons that were distributed throughout the region. The

United States also used third countries, including Israel, to supply the Contras. In El Salvador, the

Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front received AK-47s from the Honduran military, which

had raided the CIA’s Nicaraguan supplies. Caches of Cold War–origin weapons are still being

found in Latin America.

Other several domestic conflicts, such as the ongoing 40year Colombian Civil War, has made the

countries a hub for the arms trade, and also explains why for example Colombia has one of the

largest black markets in all of Latin America.

Today, most legal weapons in Latin America come from the United States, Europe, or the small but

growing regional arms industry. Because the international small-arms trade lacks full transparency,

and a significant portion of the trade is illicit, it is difficult to know the types and estimate the

quantities of weapons that Latin American countries import.

Although several treaties, international agreements, regional and sub regional initiatives, and

national policies on small arms exist, Latin American countries would benefit from additional

assistance for implementing treaties and agreements and undertaking programmatic initiatives to

MUNoH 2018

disarm (through collecting and destroying weapons and improving stockpile management),

demobilize armed groups, and reintegrate former combatants into society. Such assistance would

bolster strategies and programs and allow Latin America to take meaningful steps to stop the small-

arms scourge.

However, there is also progress made in terms of stable and legal arms trade. An example would be

the Arms Trade Treaty by the UN General Assembly, which was established on December 24th

2014. It was signed and ratified by 94 states and just signed by further 41 states. Basically, it should

regulate the international arms trade to contribute international peace and safety. You should

definitely know more about it and your countries position to it, since this would be the perfect basis

for high qualitied Operative Clauses in your resolutions.

Glossary:

Arms races: A competition between two or more states to have the best armed forces and

military power.

Import: Goods that a state buys and let them be brought into the state.

Export: Goods a state sells to purchasers outside of its borders.

Arms trafficking: Arms trafficking is the trade of weapons and ammunition. By weapons are mostly meant firearms.

Illicit weapons: Illicit weapons are weapons, which are not bought legally. Often, they are sell on the black market. Illicit weapons are not filed by the state.

Gun control: Gun control is the set of laws on how a firearm is to be used in a country.

How to prepare as a delegate:

First of all please remember that in this research report you won’t find all the information you will

need for the debate. It is very general and gives an overview about the situation worldwide and

doesn’t refer to any specific country. I urge you to research more about the issue and especially on

your nation’s opinion. In order to do this I have listed some good resources to inform yourselves

about the issue and to read into it. So, please:

Inform yourselves about the situation in and the opinion of your country concerning legal as

illegal arms trade;

Think about what your country can improve concerning the situation;

Write either a resolution or a position paper on this issue and send it to me before the

deadline expires or it will not be corrected by me anymore.

MUNoH 2018

Secondly keep in mind that we would like all of you to be able to hold a speech during debate. So

please be prepared and do not stay quiet the whole debate.

Furthermore, I would like to remind you to keep in mind that we want to set clear rules on how we

can improve this situation. So, check if your country is member of the Arms Trade Treaty, if not

why. Also think about what could be improved on the Arms Trade Treaty.

I wish you all much success with your research and I am looking forward hearing from you.

UN resolutions:

https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/salw/salw-ga-resolutions/: this link contains three

resolutions by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

https://www.un.org/disarmament/att/: with this link you will find more information in terms of the

Arms Trade Treaty

Useful links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mv8D-VS4qY

https://www.sipri.org/research/armament-and-disarmament/arms-transfers-and-military-spending/

international-arms-transfers

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/03/07/why-the-global-arms-trade-is-

booming

https://www.rand.org/news/press/2017/07/19.html

https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-trends/crime-areas/illicit-firearms-trafficking

https://intpolicydigest.org/2015/01/05/guns-weapons-illegal-trade/

http://static.un.org/disarmament/content/timeline/

Sources:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/09/killer-facts-the-scale-of-the-global-arms-

trade/

https://www.sipri.org/research/armament-and-disarmament/arms-transfers-and-military-spending/

international-arms-transfers

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/03/07/why-the-global-arms-trade-is-

booming

https://www.rand.org/news/press/2017/07/19.html

https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/armstrade/

MUNoH 2018

https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-trends/crime-areas/illicit-firearms-trafficking

https://intpolicydigest.org/2015/01/05/guns-weapons-illegal-trade/

http://static.un.org/disarmament/content/timeline/

https://nacla.org/article/small-arms-trade-latin-america

https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/salw/

https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/salw/programme-of-action/

http://www.poa-iss.org/PoA/poahtml.aspx

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chriswright/arms-trade-treaty_b_2956555.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj9Qow1pnL4