IANSA welcomes the recent ratification of the regional Firearms Protocol of the Southern Africa Development Community as an important step in the move towards universal standards for protecting civilian populations across the world from gun violence.
The SADC region is one of the regions most gravely affected by the proliferation and illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons. The availability and spread of weapons is one of the main factors fuelling conflict, crime, human rights abuses and under-development in the region.
Ten of the 13 SADC members have ratified the Protocol: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Those that have not yet ratified it are Angola, DRC and Swaziland.
Among the Protocol's provisions are a standardising of legislation on private ownership, and harmonised record-keeping of state-owned guns, along with the destruction of surplus state weapons. It also includes regulation of brokers and provisions for marking and record keeping. The Protocol will come into force routinely after consultation on implementation. |
