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NISAT
Projects
West African arms moratorium
On 31 October 1998, the 16 Heads of State in the
Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) declared a three year moratorium on the importation, exportation and manufacture of small arms and
light weapons. In so doing, West Africa became the first—and thus far
only—region in the world to announce a halt to further light arms procurement. Click
here for a chronology of events leading to
this announcement.
Click here for recent news
from the region relating to small arms.
A "Program for Coordination and Assistance on
Security and Development" (PCASED) is currently being implemented in the region to
address the security and development problems associated with the proliferation of light
weapons, and to help reinforce the politically-binding moratorium commitment. Based in
Bamako, Mali, PCASED will assist ECOWAS states in taking practical steps to ensure that
weapons do not cross their borders, to help diminish the demand for weapons, to develop
legal and regulatory measures relating to weapons possession and transfers, and to
encourage transparency and accountability in the police and military sectors.
Since its inception, NISAT has been working in support of
the establishment of the arms moratorium, and its effective enactment through the
elaboration of PCASED.
- On 1-2 April 1998, NISAT hosted a meeting in Oslo that
included representatives from 13 states of the region, as well as 23 arms exporting
governments and relevant UN agencies. At this conference, H.E. Alpha Oumar Konaré, the
President of Mali, presented the idea of a moratorium. The Oslo Platform/en français summarizes his
challenge. NISAT published the full proceedings from this meeting in A Moratorium on Light Weapons in West Africa.
- On 28-29 September 1998, NISAT held an ecumenical
consultation on micro-disarmament in Accra, Ghana with church leaders from the region. The
participants issued a final
communiqué in support of regional disarmament efforts, and pledging continued
work in this area.
- In January 1999 NISAT issued a 28 minute video
documentary, "A
Farewell to Arms." This video is designed to
raise awareness about the dangers posed by military-style small arms, and about steps
being taken by Africans to combat this plague. The documentary focuses in some detail on
the experience of Mali with small arms.
- On 17 April 1999 NISAT hosted a seminar in Oslo with H.E.
Blaise Compaore, President of Burkina Faso and of the Organization of African Unity in
Oslo, on the West African moratorium on small arms and light weapons.
- On 5 May 1999 NISAT and the UN Development Program
co-hosted a high-level international consultation on the West African arms moratorium at
the Henri Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva. The purpose of this meeting
was to raise awareness among the donor community about the PCASED and its resource needs,
as well as to further engage the support of the arms supplying governments. On the later point, see the presentation by Ambassador Staffan Sohlmans,
Chairman of the Wassenaar Arrangement.
- At the Hague Appeal
for Peace, in the Hague, Netherlands on 12 May, NISAT co-sponsored a panel
discussion on the problem of small arms proliferation in West Africa and the regional
solutions being undertaken. This panel was organized in conjunction with the Center for
Democratic Empowerment (Liberia), the Centre for Conflict Resolution (Ghana), Saferworld
(UK), and International Alert (UK). Click here for a summary
of the event, and here for the text of the presentation
by Mali's Commisaire au Nord.
- In October 1999, with
Mali Red Cross NISAT co-sponsored an regional Red Cross Conference in Bamako, focusing on
the theme "The Humanitarian Challenge: Facing the Proliferation of Light
weapons".
- In November 1999 at the 27th Conference of the
International Red Cross/Crescent, NISAT--together with Norwegian Red Cross, Norwegian
Government, Mali Red Cross and Mali Government--hosted a workshop on small arms
proliferation.
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