Activities of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime :#illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, as Well as Consideration of the Need to Develop an Instrument on the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Explosives

Recommends that, in negotiating the international legal instrument, the Ad Hoc Committee take into account, when appropriate and pertinent, the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials, adopted by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States at its twenty-fourth special session, held in Washington, D.C., on 13 and 14 November 1997,⁴ as well as other existing international instruments and ongoing initiatives;

Calls upon States to consider the adoption of such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences under their domestic law the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, as well as explosives;

Encourages States to consider ways to enhance cooperation and the exchange of data and other information with a view to preventing, curbing, combating and eradicating the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, as well as explosives;

Requests the Secretary-General, from within existing or extrabudgetary resources, to convene an expert group of no more than twenty members, with equitable geographical representation, to prepare a study on the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in explosives by criminals and their use for criminal purposes, taking fully into consideration the issues listed in paragraph 2 of Economic and Social Council resolution 1998/17;

Also requests the Secretary-General to facilitate the participation of experts from developing countries in the meeting of the expert group by providing, from within existing or extrabudgetary resources, for the travel of experts from such countries;

Invites Member States to make voluntary contributions in order to support the study to be prepared by the expert group and to ensure the participation of experts from developing countries;

Requests the Secretary-General to report, as early as possible, to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on the results of the study, and directs the Ad Hoc Committee, following the completion of the study, to consider the possible elaboration of an international instrument on the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in explosives.