Eleventh Meeting of The Andean Community Council of Foreign Ministers, June 24 - 25, 2003, Quirama, Antioquia - Colombia

Decision 552

Andean Plan to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects

The Andean council of foreign ministers,

Having seen: Articles 1 and 16 of the text of the Cartagena Agreement, codified through Decision 406; the Chapter on Foreign Affairs incorporated into the Cartagena Agreement through Article 4 of the Sucre Protocol; and Decision 458, which approves the Common Foreign Policy Guidelines;

Taking into account: That the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence of the Andean Community Member Countries, meeting in Lima on June 17, 2002, signed the "Lima Commitment: Andean Charter for Peace and Security and the Limitation and Control of the Expenditure on Foreign Defence," through which they agreed to adopt, inter alia, urgent measures to combat illicit trade in weapons, ammunition, explosives and other related materials, due to their connection with the worldwide drug problem, terrorism, transnational organized crime, mercenary activities and other criminal behaviour;

That based on the Ministerial mandates, the Andean Community High-Level Group on Security and Confidence-Building, created by the above-cited Lima Commitment, agreed at its first meeting, held in Bogotá on February 28, 2003, to expedite the designing and implementation of an Andean Plan to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its aspects, a decision that was subsequently endorsed by the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers on March 11, 2003;

That illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, governance, stability and democratic and institutional order of Andean Community Member Countries and conspires against the aspiration of our societies to attain higher levels of political, economic, social and cultural development that are sustainable in the long term;

That illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects is a global problem closely tied in with terrorism and other forms of political violence, the worldwide drug problem, transnational organized crime, mercenary activities and other criminal behaviour, all of them scourges that the Andean Community Member Countries are determined to fight;

That the Member Countries are committed to observe international law and the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly respect for national sovereignty, non-intervention in the internal affairs of the Member States, the legitimate right to individual and collective defence established in Article 51 of that Charter, the right of all nations to self-determination and the right of Member States to develop their own defence systems to guarantee their national security;

That the Andean Community Member Countries agreed to implement the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its aspects, adopted in New York in July 2001;

That the Andean Community Member Countries have ratified the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials, signed in Washington, D.C. in November 1997;

That the Andean Community Member Countries backed the recommendations of the Regional Seminar for Latin America and the Caribbean to evaluate and follow-up on the United Nations Conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects, held in Santiago in November 2001;

That the Andean Community Member Countries approved the Model Regulations of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), in order to establish a series of harmonized measures and procedures to supervise and control international trade in firearms, their parts and ammunition, with a view to avoiding illicit trade in those items and their diversion for illegal uses and purposes;

That the problem of proliferation of illicit arms may only be resolved extensively, broadly and in an integrated manner by reinforcing the capacity to regulate and comply with all aspects that govern the lawful manufacture, import, export, transfer, sale, brokerage, transport, possession, concealment, usurpation, carrying and use of arms of this kind, as well as establishing cooperative Community mechanisms for this purpose; and,

That the General Secretariat has put forward Proposal 102/Rev. 1 on the Andean Plan to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its aspects;

Decides:

Sole Article - To establish the Andean Plan to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its aspects, set out in the document annexed to this Decision.

Signed in the Quirama Recinto, Department of Antioquia of the Republic of Colombia, on the twenty-fifth of June of two thousand three.

Note

The following national institutions, inter alia, could participate in the inter-institutional activities of the National Coordinating Committees -National Focal Points-: the ministries of foreign affairs, defence, the interior or government, and justice, the public ministry, the judiciary, the armed forces, the police, customs and immigration officials and representatives of civil society.

Eleventh Meeting of The Andean Community Council of Foreign Ministers, June 24 - 25, 2003, Quirama, Antioquia - Colombia

Annex I

Annex II

Annex III

Annex IV