European Union Joint Action on Small Arms and Light WeaponsIn December 1998, the Council adopted a Joint Action on the basis of
Article J.3 of the Treaty on European Union, on the European Union's
contribution to combating the destabilising the accumulation and spread of Small
Arms and Light Weapons. Download: EU Joint Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PDF) The Joint Action is legally binding on the member states, though it is
implemented through national laws and procedures. The Joint Action covers
political and strategic guidelines for governments’ arms exporting practices
and is therefore an important legal document. The Joint Action refers to the control and registration of exports,
transparency and evaluation of potential importers. These general guidelines
state that members should “combat and contribute to ending the
destabilising accumulation and spread of small arms” and “contribute to the
reduction of existing accumulations of these weapons to levels consistent with
countries’ legitimate security needs”. The Joint Action includes, in Article 3, a provision which states that governemnts are the only legitimate recipinets of military style small arms and light weapons.The Joint Action also permits the EU to provide financial and technical assistance to solve problems caused by existing accumulations of small arms and light weapons. The EU has taken actions as regards technical, financial and other
assistance given to projects conducted by the UN, the Red Cross, other
international organisations and regional arrangements, and NGOs, as well as to
other states. Projects has been conducted in Albania,
Cambodia,
Georgia
and Mozambique. A problem with the Joint Action is its definition of Small Arms and Light
Weapons. The definition of small arms only refers to weapons “specially
designed for military use”, which means that it fails to address pistols,
revolvers, shotguns and many rifles. This means that many weapons frequently
used in civil conflicts are not covered by the definition applied by the Joint
Action. Download: |
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