English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

Proliferation of small armsbordering states of India, weak law and order situation and impunity haveprovided the environment conducive with the armed groups and criminalgangs to flourish.3. Response strategyProliferation of small arms and human insecurity are strongly interlinkedand one is enforcing the other. Therefore, controlling of small armsneeds integrated approach that addresses sources of human insecurityand promotes coordinated security response. Parliamentarians, policymakers, political parties, security providers and civil society includingmedia must work together to control this and associated crimes. It isnow the onus of the state to combat with the wide flow of small arms.Combating illegal proliferation of small arms requires leading role of thegovernment and support form political parties, civil society, experts,international community and citizens as a whole. Brief role of each ofthem are highlighted here.3.1 Role of the parliamentParliament can and should play an important role in the post-conflictstate building by bringing suitable legislations to control illicit trading andregulating production, transfer and stockpiling of small arms. The currentlegislations related to controlling of the small arms are weak, inadequateand therefore unable to address the new challenges.Parliament has also important role in directing government to signconventions related to the control of small arms that will ultimatelyhelp government and arms control advocacy groups to tackle with thisproblem. International community will also help in this process once thegovernment signs such conventions.Parliamentary oversight of the functioning of the government oncontrolling illicit trading of small arms is fundamentally important. Globallyacknowledged, it is the fundamental basis for making governmentsaccountable in relation to security and arms (IANSA 2004).The parliament has to pass the resolution to sign the Armed Trade Treaty(ATT) [so far 153 countries have supported the resolution of ATT proposedby Programme of Action (POA) of the UN] 13 that provides broader13See http://www.iansa.org/un/ATTvotes.htm for the full list of 153 countries who voted in support ofUN Resolution 61/89 (Arms trade treaty) for details.250