Summary Report: Briefing Session for Indian Parliamentarians on ATT

Briefing Session for Indian Parliamentarians
for the United Nations process for an international Arms Trade Treaty

Control Arms Foundation of India, New Delhi, organized a briefing session for Indian Parliamentarians on the United Nations Process for an Arms Trade Treaty on Monday, 3rd August 2009. The briefing was attended by 13 parliamentarians from 8 different states of India who are affected by unregulated arms proliferation. Besides various Indian civil society organizations, former military personnel, members of press and scholars attended the briefing which was held at the Deputy Speakers Hall located at Constitution Club in New Delhi.

For pictures of the event please click HERE

Proceedings

Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General, CAFI, introduced the session with a warm welcome note to all present and introduced all the speakers on behalf of CAFI. She spoke of how the world military spending has broken the trillion dollar mark. It is estimated to have reached $ 1464 billion in 2008. Still there is still no comprehensive, binding international treaty on the trade in conventional arms worldwide. There are more regulations in music and film industry but none in arms. And worldwide 2000 people die every day due from armed violence caused by unregulated arms trade.

She also shared how the efforts for an ATT took roots worldwide and how over 50,000 Indians started a campaign since 2006 to make the ATT happen. She also spoke of the important consensus that took on 17 July 2009, at the United Nations where all governments agreed that international action is needed to address the problem of the unregulated arms trade. She also explained the meaning and the guiding principles of the Arms Trade Treaty.

Ms Nepram also explained that there is a need to involve the parliamentarians in the process of making the ‘Arms Trade Treaty’ happen, as it is these parliamentarians who are the direct representatives of the people and in order to push the government, the civil society needs their support.

Lt Gen (retd) Dr B.S. Malik, President, CAFI, thanked all the MPs who came to attend the briefing session of the on the United Nations Process for an Arms Trade Treaty. He also expressed his belief, that organisations like CAFI feel really encouraged when the parliamentarians come to attend sessions like these.

Further, he mentioned that it is only when the arms start proliferating in any normal conflict; that it becomes an alarming situation and hence it becomes imperative to address the problems and conflicts when they are at a smaller level rather than waiting for it to grow and result in a grave problem later. He also pointed out that “9/11 has shown us another direction that defence and security are two different things.” Finally he mentioned that “CAFI is raising those issues through which citizens can feel safe.”

The keynote speaker of the event was Mr Ravinder Pal Singh, Security Analyst and Former Project Leader on Arms Procurement, SIPRI, who gave a presentation on “Democratic Oversight Of Security Sectors: A Study On Indian Parliamentary Processes and the Arms Trade Treaty”. According to Mr Singh, “The Indian defence budget design has not changed since 1939. An effective parliamentarian is expected to act as a bridge between the governments, the military elite, the industry and the civil society. An informed parliamentarian is therefore, a key element for improving quality of governance in the society and building stable security relations.

An important objective of good governance requires building a better access to public information sources so as to avoid dependence on the executive for informational inputs required for parliamentary debates on security sector policies and its accountability. It has remained incremental in nature and does not indicate any outputs.”

His presentation involved the following objectives:

• To identify opportunities and limitations in building parliamentary oversight of security related or technology intensive sectors vis a vis the representational roles of the members of parliament.

• Examine parliamentary oversight roles, methods and capacities to validate, monitor, verify and review executive decisions in security sector and scrutinize their budgets.

• Identify approaches and methods that may involve civil societies capacities to build autonomous informational resources and structures for policy assessment and audit.

He also discussed the “Organizing Principles of Good Governance of Security Sectors” and the “basic functions of the democratic oversight of security sectors.” He also suggested a separate briefing in near future for a “Parliamentarians Oversight in Arms Procurement”. This will make issues on India on Arms Trade Treaty issues clearer.

The film “Gunning for Control” on the need for India and Arms Trade Treaty was also shown to the MPs.

The Chief Guest address was delivered by Dr Thockchom Meinya, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. He expressed his opinion that “The Arms Trade Treaty which can save lives and help prevent attacks like the Mumbai terror.” He also mentioned that “ATT does not mean, no transfer of arms, but it means that we need to comply with rules of the UN charter and other multi lateral treaties.” He in his speech urged all other parliamentarians to do their best to support the Arms Trade Treaty. 

He also mentioned that parliamentarians have a very important role in overseeing both arms trade and arms transfer. Rules and procedures guiding arms procurement must be consistent with those laid down by the national procurement law, the national budget and finance laws or contract and disputes settlement laws. Guiding features of arms trade and transfer policy and its legal framework should be based on principles of transparency and accountability.

Mr C.M. Chang, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, from Nagaland State, expressed his concern that almost all the states in the border states of India’s North East region have a problem of excessive weapons, and in these areas weapons have become very cheap. According to him it is very necessary that the government of India makes amends in its policies so that there are proper checks on the supply of weapons. He gave a vital suggestion for CAFI that “Though it’s a great opportunity for us parliamentarians to come and be a part of discussions on such important issues”.

Mr Biswajit Daimary, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, from Assam State, firstly thanked and congratulated CAFI for the briefing and for working on India’s biggest problem of arms proliferation. He spoke also about the situation in his home state of Assam where he mentioned that the situation is more complicated as it has the maximum number of insurgents and there is a rampant supply of arms and weapons. He described the evolution of the introduction of unregulated arms in the state of Assam since the 1960’s.

According to him:  “It was only a simple demand of the establishment of a tribal hostel for bodo natives and the demand for bodo language on the assamese radio which gradually lead to demand for a separate state eventually resulting in excessive arms supply and armed violence.” He also stressed on the fact that “to stop this excessive supply of arms we need a good policy from the government.” 

Parliamentarians to Raise Question on Arms Trade Treaty

At the discussion round, CAFI made an appeal to the parliamentarians to raise question during the ongoing Monsoon session of parliament on the delay government of India is taking to support the ongoing United Nations process for an Arms Trade Treaty. The MPs present agreed to take this important issue up in the remaining sessions of parliament.

Following are the names of 13 MPs who came for the briefing. They presented 8 states of India who are affected by unregulated arms:

• Shri Biswajit Diamary, MP, Lok Sabha, Assam

• Shri  Lalmingliana, MP, Rajya Sabha, Mizoram

• Shri  Dr Thockhom Meinya, MP, Lok Sabha, Manipur

• Shri  C. M. Chang, MP, Lok Sabha, Nagaland

• Shri   Chandu Lal Sahu, MP, Lok Sabha, Chhatisgarh

• Shri  Ninong Ering,  MP, Lok Sabha, Arunachal Pradesh

• Smt Sumitra Mahajan, MP,  Lok Sabha, Madhya Pradesh

• Shri Madhu Sudan Yadav, MP, Lok Sabha, Chattisgarh

• Shri  Murarilal Singh,  MP, Lok Sabha, Chattisgarh

• Shri  J. M. Aaron Rashid, MP, Lok Sabha, Tamil Nadu

• Shri  Paban Singh Ghatowar, MP, Lok Sabha, Assam

• Shri Ashok Agarwal, MP, Lok Sabha, Madhya Pradesh

• Shri  Madan Lal Sharma, MP, Lok Sabha, J & K

Addresses by CAFI’s partner organizations at the briefing

There were also addresses made by Indian civil society partners of CAFI. The following partners namely South Asia Peace Alliance, Centre for Governance and Budget Accountability and National Commission for Justice, Peace and Development also addressed the gathering.

Ms Pooja Parvati, Centre for Governance and Budget Accountability, brought about the point through her presentation that government expenditure has not been correctly prioritized and there is too much flow of funds on military and defence than on the other social sectors like those of health and education and hence the budget needs to have re-formulation of priorities while allocating the funds.

Her presentation also mentioned how developing nations like India continue to be the primary importers of arms. In 2007, 70.5 per cent of the arms transfer agreements were made in favour of developing nations. The spending on military expenditure beyond a legitimate need constitutes unproductive expenditure and diverts resources from other public services that could have helped to combat poverty. Additionally, irresponsible arms transfers are also responsible for fuelling and continuation of conflict.

Father Nithiya, Executive Secretary, National Commission for Justice, Peace and Development, furthered the ongoing argument by saying that “there are two sides that we need to look at, these are, defence and welfare. What is required is that the government needs to balance out between the two giving more priority to social welfare.

He also expressed his opinion that “it is not possible to stop violence by violence, and it is only when our money goes back to our welfare that we are going to feel satisfied. We need a ‘peace budget’ and we want our parliamentarians to go and voice our opinion.” He also made a suggestion that there should be more signature campaigns for the young people in order to introduce ‘culture of peace’.

Mrs. Rita Roy, Executive Officer, South Asia Peace Alliance, New Delhi, in her speech expressed similar sentiments like those of Father Nithiya. While expressing the need for joint Forum of Parliamentarians and Indian civil society, she said the “it is very important to take forward the Arms Trade Treaty and that the parliamentarians have a strong role in shaping the policy of the government. In order to convince the government of the need for an arms trade treaty, parliamentarians and the civil society need to come together.”

Ms. Elizabeth Imti, Parliamentary Affairs Coordinator, Control Arms Foundation of India, delivered a vote of thanks and a reading of a statement from CAFI : “The first historic consensus moves the world closer to an Arms Trade Treaty. Most governments now support an Arms Trade Treaty and they must now move forward with urgency. The recently concluding Open Ended Working Group on Arms Trade Treaty is one step closer towards containing irresponsible arms transfers which have caused loss of lives of thousands worldwide”. She also reiterated that more parliamentarian briefings will be done in the coming months to make the ATT happen.

For more information, please contact:


Control Arms Foundation of India

B 5 / 146, First Floor, Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi – 110 029, India

Phone: +91-11-46018541 Fax: +91-11-26166234