Statement by
Shafqat Ali Khan, DPR
At the
2012 Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the
Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of
Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) which may be Deemed
to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects
15 November 2012
Mr. President,
It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you on your election as
President of the 2012 Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the
CCW. We are confident that, under your able stewardship, this Meeting
will achieve optimum results. Let me assure you of my delegation’s full
support and cooperation for achieving a positive outcome of this
meeting.
Mr. President,
The CCW is a milestone instrument in the field of arms control
and disarmament. The strength of this Convention lies in the legal
framework it enacts, to bring in consonance the humanitarian concerns
related to conventional weapons with the security imperatives of states.
Pakistan played an active role in the negotiations for the
Convention as well as its Protocols. It is a party to all the five protocols
of the CCW and is fully compliant with their provisions. It has
submitted all the requisite reports concerning its compliance. Pakistan
remains committed under its obligations arising from the CCW
framework. We are also proud of our active contribution to the demining efforts in different parts of the world particularly in the context
of the UN peace-keeping operations, to which Pakistan is the singlelargest troop contributor accounting for almost 10% of UN peacekeepers in the world. While continuing to fulfill our obligations under
the CCW framework we certainly would not be bound by treaties or
arrangements developed outside this framework.
In order to further enhance the positive impact of this
Convention and its Protocols, there is a need for attention on
broadening the membership as well as enhancing implementation.
Pakistan continues to emphasize the need for promoting universality of
the CCW and its Protocols. In order to further promote
implementation, steps may be considered to further calibrate the
reporting mechanisms, without creating additional reporting burden
for the State Parties.
Mr. President,
The issue of Anti-Vehicle Mines (AVMs) or Mines Other Than
Anti-Personnel Mines (MOTAPM) continues to generate divergent
viewpoints and perspectives of the states parties to the CCW. There
exist wide differences on AVMs in term of scope, definitions, transfers,
cooperation and assistance, in addition to technical details. Pakistan
considers the AVMs as legitimate defensive weapons, which deter
aggression and avert war, especially in situations of conventional
military imbalance. The humanitarian concerns arise from the
“irresponsible use” of these AVMs by non-state actors, while their use
by States Parties is already regulated by the existing provisions of the
CCW and International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
Mr. President,
Pakistan believes that neither detectability nor technical
alteration of the AVMs would address the humanitarian concerns, as
detectability would undermine their legitimate defensive utility and
technical alterations, without the sharing and transfer of technology,
would create another imbalance by promoting the commercial interests
of some States. Any discussion on technological alterations of AVMs
must be accompanied by the concrete modalities of assistance and
cooperation, both in terms of technology and investment. But based on
our experience from discussions held earlier this year we do not see any
value in pursuing separate discussions on this issue under CCW.
We urge all member states to find ways and means to address
core issues with tangible and practical solutions, including investing
resources in development of sophisticated yet affordable mine
detectors and their sharing through an agreed cooperation and
assistance mechanism. At this juncture, we need to strengthen the
implementation of the existing instruments of the CCW. Further
amendments to those instruments would hamper our efforts to
universalize the Convention, thus undermining our collective efforts in
this endeavour.
Thank you Mr. President.