Report

Controlling the Transfer of Arms Progress and Challenges in the African Context

“This paper argues that events over the past two years(since January 2006)have reinforced the need to locate efforts at strengthening controls over the transfer of small arms at the national and regional levels. This is for two reasons. First, while policy responses and efforts at the global level to control small arms have seen some success, they merely provide broad guidelines on what may be required and do not always adequately elaborate on what is required from member states, as seen in the two principle global agreements that do exist, namely the 2001 UN Protocol Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UN Firearms Protocol) and the UN PoA.”