By Wendy Anders

This morning in Geneva, Switzerland, Costa Rica’s Security Minister Gustavo Mata reiterated Costa Rica’s wholesale commitment to the effective implementation of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.

The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is a multilateral treaty regulating international trade in conventional weapons, according to the United Nations website that entered into force in December 2014. Costa Rica is one of the treaty’s seven co-authors and was one of the ATT’s first signatories in 2013.

Eighty-seven states have ratified the treaty, and a further 46 states have signed but not ratified it. All Central American nations except Nicaragua and Honduras have signed the treaty, according to UN sources.

The treaty’s goal is contribute to international and regional peace, reduce human suffering, and promote co-operation, transparency and responsible action by and among states, according to the UN.

As a special guest at the high level segment of this 2nd Conference of States Parties to the Treaty (August 22-26), Minister Mata stated that, “it has been our responsibility to establish binding criteria for all transfers of conventional weapons; the idea is to prevent these from exacerbating conflicts, from violating human rights and international humanitarian law,” according to the Security Ministry press office.

He continued to say: “We have conducted an exhaustive review of our legislation and have come to the conclusion that whereas we currently have a normative framework that establishes a competent authority to oversee the transfer of arms, we must create a more integral national control system that is interdisciplinary and inclusive and responds to a unique country model. And, most importantly, which is effective.”

The goal of the meeting, according to the Costa Rican Security Ministry, is to move forward with work to advance the treaty in areas of assistance, international cooperation, implementation, and establishing a definitive structure for the Secretariat which will allow for the treaty’s instruments to be implemented.