MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

MISSING PIECES
The Nairobi and SADC Protocols are the most advanced and specific
on the regulation of guns in the hands of civilians. One of the objectives
of the Nairobi Protocol is to ‘encourage accountability, law enforcement
and efficient control and management of small arms held by States Parties
and civilians’. Each of the 11 East African nations is responsible for incorporating
into their national law:
• prohibition of unrestricted civilian possession of small arms;
• total prohibition of civilian possession and use of all light weapons and
automatic rifles, semi-automatic rifles, and machine guns;
• regulation and centralised registration of all civilian-owned small arms
in their territories;
• provisions for effective storage and use of civilian-held firearms, including
competency testing of prospective owners;
• monitoring and auditing of licences held and restriction of the number
of guns that may be owned by individuals;
• prohibitions on pawning or pledging of small arms; and
• registration to ensure accountability and effective control of all guns
owned by private security companies.
In addition, the signatories agree to encourage the surrender of illegal
guns by civilians and to develop local, national, and regional public education
programmes aimed at encouraging responsible ownership and management
of guns.
BOX 4 HARMONISATION OF NATIONAL FIREARMS LEGISLATION:
LESSONS FROM THE GREAT LAKES REGION AND HORN OF AFRICA
By Francis Sang, Executive Secretary of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA)
In April 2004, states in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa (Burundi,
DRC, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Somalia,
Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda) signed the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention,
Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Nairobi
Protocol is a detailed legally-binding regional agreement, which entered
into force in May 2006, and commits states to establishing controls across a
range of areas including national firearms legislation, transfer controls,
manufacturing, marking and tracing, brokering, and enforcement of arms
embargoes.
In June 2005, the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA) was established
to co-ordinate action by member states. One of RECSA’s first tasks was to
coordinate the development of Best Practice Guidelines to inform the implementation
of the Protocol through harmonisation of small arms legislation
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