Agreement on measures to curb small arms

African nations have reacted to the high levels of violent crime and insurrection on the continent by adopting a common approach to curbing the illegal trade in and proliferation of small arms.

Participants at a two-day ministerial meeting that ended on 1 December in the Malian capital, Bamako, agreed to increase their ability to identify, seize and destroy illicit weapons at the national, subregional and continental levels.

“We recommend that members states should, at the national level, put in place, where they do not exist, national coordination agencies or bodies and the appropriate institutional infrastructure responsible for policy guidance, research and monitoring on all aspects of small arms and light weapons proliferation,” the conference declaration said.

The ministers recommended that the international community make laws and regulations to control arms transfers by manufacturers, suppliers, traders, brokers, and shipping and transit agents.

“We strongly appeal to the wider international community and, particularly, to arms-supplier countries to accept that trade in small arms should be limited to governments and authorised registered licensed traders,” the declaration said.

The meeting was held under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to prepare a collective African position on the illicit trade in and proliferation of small arms at a UN conference to be held in New York on 9-20 July 2001.