Statement to UN Firearms Protocol Constructive Dialogue
5 April 2024 - T4T delivered a statement during today’s Constructive Dialogue on the UNTOC Firearms Protocol, organised by UNODC, making three specific points in response to Agenda item IV on "‘States parties’ technical assistance needs and non-governmental stakeholders’ engagement” and in light of Recommendation 8 of the Background Paper of Working Group on Firearms on Operationalising the Firearms Protocol in view of technological developments relating to the illicit manufacturing of an trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition.
Recommendation 8 reads, ‘States are encouraged to explore the use of technology to enhance responses related to technological developments and changing modi operandi in the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition . . .’
T4T’s three points:
As criminals evolve in their use of new technologies, States’ parties’ technical assistance needs to effectively respond will only grow. What we are now seeing is only the start of a technology race between criminals and law enforcement in the domain of illicit weapons manufacture. To beat the criminals in this race, states need technical expertise that lies with non-governmental stakeholders––with NGOs and the private sector.
In the fight against illicit firearms manufacture and trafficking, information exchange is critical, whether organized bilaterally or through regional and international mechanisms and platforms. Key examples of such platforms include iARMS, iTRACE, and the planned Europol Firearms Intelligence Hub. For information exchange mechanisms to be effective, however, it is essential for national authorities to ‘speak the same technical language’ when it comes to illicit weapons data. A number of standard universal reference lists exist for firearms, including the Interpol Firearms Reference Table, but no such reference exists for firearms ammunition. For this reason, working in consultation with law enforcement entities, T4T is developing the international SMall Caliber Ammunition Reference Table (SMART), which could be extremely useful to States for documenting and then sharing information on seized illicit ammunition.
Automating the detection and documentation of privately-manufactured firearm parts and components needs special attention given how fast they are proliferating and their increasing prominence in seizures. Because of their unique geometry, these objects––like explosives and munitions––are amenable to detection and identification using artificial intelligence (AI) computer vision. This is another important area where specialized non-governmental entities can work closely with law enforcement to ensure that they have the leading technologies they need to combat criminal manufacture and trafficking, and to thereby more effectively implement the Firearms Protocol.