Since this conference started two days ago, the news has carried accounts of the devastation caused by small arms in countries from DRC to Iraq, from Germany and the United States to Liberia. In that same time we have heard from Member States as to their progress on implementing the PoA. Some of this progress is notable, but the complete record is far from adequate. And, while providing a basis from which to begin the search for solutions, the PoA must not become a resting place. The individual initiatives developed under the PoA have value, but they do not replace a more ambitious strategic intervention by world governments.

Our hope is that this conference will serve to reinvigorate the commitment of governments and international agencies involved in SALW. Our challenge to you is that it does so. We’ve heard from all of you that it is important to tackle small arms proliferation at the national, regional, and global levels in concert with NGO partners. We therefore encourage you to take on a broader range of issues and broader definitions, in order to promote meaningful change and prevent the daily suffering around the world from the uncontrolled proliferation and the misuse of small arms. We call on you to reinforce the commitment of the international community to address the problem of gun violence and to work within the United Nations and beyond to push for meaningful action on small arms.

Over the past few hours, you have listened to seven themes chosen by the participants of IANSA as the focus of our work on small arms.

Throughout our remarks, we have stressed that the PoA is a good start. To have any impact on the global problem of weapons proliferation, the international community must adopt measures that tackle the problem from the factory door to the arms-affected community. This will involve all states making commitments about their role as suppliers of arms to others and fulfilling their duty to protect their citizens in accordance with international law. The PoA be elaborated upon, and key issues that were effectively dropped off the agenda two years ago must be reinstated.

Therefore, we, as members of IANSA, but also as part of civil society committed to stopping the deadly human cost of small arms proliferation and misuse, call for governments to take the following steps to reinvigorate their commitments under the PoA and move the small arms issue forward. States must:

· Adopt strict arms export criteria that are based on the observance of human rights and compliance with international humanitarian law.
· Develop and strengthen regional codes of conduct, which should be made binding
· Negotiate a binding international instrument on arms transfers, which contains strong human rights and humanitarian criteria.
· Develop an international regime for the standardization, authentication, verification, and continued monitoring of end-user commitments.
· Strengthen and enforce arms embargoes.
· Prosecute illicit arms traffickers and corrupt government officials, including those who breach U.N. arms embargoes.
· Secure arms stockpiles and dispose responsibly of surplus and seized weapons to prevent them from being stolen or sold off to unaccountable forces.
· Address arms brokering through legally binding measures, including negotiating and international instrument on arms brokering.
· Fulfil existing government responsibilities to comply with international. humanitarian and human rights law, including by exercising due control over private actors.
· Ensure that police and armed forces strictly uphold international standards.
· Follow up on the report of the U.N. group of experts on marking and tracing, including launching negotiations for an international instrument.
· Prevent the exploitation and illicit trade of natural resources that fuel conflicts and contribute to illicit arms sales.
· Develop controls on civilian possession and use. Ban civilian possession of military assault weapons,
· Create mechanisms to hold governments accountable for their misuse of small arms and their failure to prevent misuse.
· Identify root causes for the demand of small arms.
· Fund research on demand issues and develop typologies for solutions to specific situations.
· Promote security sector reform, including increased wages, educational incentives, human rights training, and judicial reform.
· Develop holistic approaches towards small arms demand and misuse by undertaking comprehensive DDR programmes.
· Appoint national focal points for those states that haven’t yet done so.
· Engage civil society in the process of developing national action plans.
· Develop regional and international norms to involve civil society as a legitimate actor in the process of developing practical and sustainable responses to small arms problems; and
· Coordinate local, national, regional, and global measures to implement the PoA systematically and comprehensively.

This list does not provide all of the answers to stopping the proliferation and misuse of small arms. But, without States first taking responsibility for controlling the supply, reducing the demand and ending the misuse of weapons, human security will continue to be destabilised and unattainable.