Expert Seminar New Tech for UN PoA/ITI (Copy)

25 July 2023 - Tech 4 Tracing (T4T) was pleased to be invited to contribute to today's Thematic Expert Seminar on 'SALW Control and the Implications of New Technologies' for improving implementation of the UN Programme of Action (PoA) on small arms and light weapons (SALW) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI). The seminar was organised by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research and brought together some 35 technical experts.

T4T's contribution reviewed the ITI's dual focus on identification and tracing and noted that it is efforts to document and identify SALW that are most likely to be radically enhanced by automation as a result of technology advancements, including in artificial intelligence. With this in mind, T4T recommends that the proposed Open-ended Technical Expert Group (OETEG) for the PoA/ITI be broad enough to cover new methods and techniques to improve detection and identification of all SALW and their components—not just for weapons produced with polymer and modular frames, and 3D-printed firearms. T4T also recommended that the proposed group have a mandate to cover as-yet unidentified developments in firearm manufacture technologies that present new challenges for identification, marking and tracing.

Finally, T4T also suggested that that since new detection and identification technologies cut across many weapons systems (small arms and light weapons, conventional weapons, explosive ordnance), that the technical expert groups which different UN bodies are in the process of establishing, should share insights and recommendations.