Topic: Combating the Spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Country: Indonesia
Delegate Name: Matthew Wolfgram
School: Flint Southwestern Classical Academy
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Indonesia position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
We, the country of Indonesia, believe that the smuggling and illicit trafficking of Small arms/light weapons poses a significant threat to territorial integrity and sovereignty. In the past, non-state actors have gained political leverage in our country by taking advantage of these illicit activities, fostering separatist movements, and encouraging criminal activity. To prevent this for us and other countries in the future, we wish to collaborate with the United Nations and surrounding states to reduce the circulation of illicit SALW. Any lack of concentration to reduce the circulation of SALW could be detrimental to the well-being of our country, and other members of the UN, as uncontrolled spread of SALW could lead to political unrest, slowing diplomatic and governmental procedures around the world.
In previous years, our country has strengthened bilateral and regional communication with the UNODA (UN office for disarmament affairs) to combat the spread of small arms/light weapons. Additionally, we met with international authorities of states such as Cambodia, The Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunel Darussalam, Vietnam, Japan, and Lao PDR to discuss the issue. It was concluded that a collective effort must be taken to slow, and eventually stop the spread of SALW. Shortly after, we formed a joint investigation with the aforementioned countries to pursue and interrogate parties involved with the smuggling of SALW. Legislations were also passed within our nation to regulate the use of illegal SALW.
As stated previously, our country has gone to great lengths to promote illicit distribution of SALW. The need to regulate the use of these weapons should be recognized by other countries, as the fight to ban illegal SALW must be an international one. Indonesia alone cannot control SALW, and would like to see other countries adopt legislations to regulate small arms and light weapons, so to improve international
security and stability.
