MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

MISSING PIECES
3. Moratoria
Voluntary and mandatory moratoria can often be effective ways to limit
the proliferation of guns and ammunition. Unlike embargoes, moratoria
do not necessarily imply punishment for actions or activities, and are
preventive in nature. They can apply to a single country, to sub-regions,
or entire regions; be initiated by importing or exporting states; and can
cover only selected types of weapons. For example, a number of governments
that are not party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty have moratoria on
the export of anti-personnel mines. 25
On 14 June 2006, Member States of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) signed the new ECOWAS Convention on Small
Arms and Light Weapons. This instrument replaces the 1998 non-binding
ECOWAS Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture
of Small Arms and Light Weapons, which had proven incapable of preventing
new supplies of guns and ammunition from entering West Africa. Among
the many examples of violations, Côte d’Ivoire was known to have imported
‘considerable amounts of military hardware, notably from China’. 26 The
Convention now prohibits all international transfers of small arms within
the sub-region unless a Member State obtains an exemption from the
ECOWAS Secretariat. The Secretariat decides on an exemption based upon
stringent criteria reflecting the obligations of all governments under relevant
international law. The Convention also harmonises laws on private gun
possession across the sub-region, requiring users to obtain a renewable
license from their national authorities, and requiring proof of a genuine
need for gun possession.
4. Marking and tracing
One challenge to the enforcement of arms controls is the difficulty of determining
the origin of the guns that are misused in violent conflict and human
rights crisis zones around the world. The UN Firearms Protocol provides
that guns must be marked at the point of manufacture, import, and transfer
from government into private hands. Yet as noted above the Firearms
Protocol only covers commercial transfers, thereby exempting state-to-state
transactions. Further, it is limited to barrel firearms.
As part of the PoA, governments committed themselves to developing
an international regime on the marking and tracing of small arms. The
International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely
and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons was formally
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