MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
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THEME 1<br />
across the region. A workshop on this topic was organised in September<br />
2005, which produced a set of guidelines and an implementation plan to be<br />
carried out at both national and regional levels. Each Member State agreed<br />
to establish a legal drafting team by April 2006 to review their national<br />
small arms legislation and check whether it conforms to the Best Practice<br />
Guidelines.<br />
In December 2005, a regional parliamentary workshop was held to highlight<br />
the important role that parliamentarians need to play in harmonising<br />
small arms legislation. With respect to the proliferation of illicit small arms<br />
and light weapons the workshop agreed on the following plan of action:<br />
1. To lobby for creation of small arms resource centre in the parliamentary<br />
libraries to regularly update members on issues related to small arms and<br />
light weapons<br />
2. To strengthen the link between parliamentarians and law enforcement<br />
agencies to ensure that legislation is not just a dead letter, but is implemented<br />
3. To strengthen the existing parliamentary initiatives especially by building<br />
the capacity of parliamentarians to make policy on issues of peace building<br />
4. To take personal commitments and interest in harmonisation of legislation<br />
on small arms and light weapons in the region.<br />
The activities undertaken by RECSA and its partners with respect to<br />
implementing the Nairobi Protocol demonstrate what is possible if regional<br />
networks are engaged and strengthened. The efforts made to harmonise<br />
firearms legislation and the active involvement of parliamentarians serves as<br />
a model that could be emulated in other regions. Parliamentarians involved<br />
in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa process are encouraged to share their<br />
experiences and lessons learned during the process – which is still ongoing –<br />
to help other parliamentarians develop similar strategies to collectively<br />
combat the small arms problem in their own regions.<br />
Following a seminar by AWEPA (European Parliamentarians for Africa)<br />
held in November 2003 in Mombasa, Burundi, the Democratic Republic<br />
of the Congo and Rwanda have initiated a process to harmonise their<br />
respective firearms legislation. This led to a series of sub-regional parliamentary<br />
conferences between parliamentarians from the three countries<br />
aimed at harmonising their legislation. It is hoped that, once final agreement<br />
on harmonisation has been reached, it will serve as a model and<br />
catalyst for harmonising laws in the entire region.<br />
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS<br />
In addition to the trend among governments to strengthen outdated, weak<br />
or incomplete national gun laws, several multilateral processes have encour-<br />
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