Conference Report - First National Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons in Support of the Implementation of the SADC Protocol on Firearms and Ammunition, Windhoek, Namibia

One hundred and twenty national participants including government officials from all state agencies, parliamentarians, traditional leaders, civil society organizations including interest groups, unions and non-governmental associations and Namibian based international organizations met at the Safari Park conference centre in Windhoek, Namibia from 7-9 October, 2002 for the First National Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons in Support of the Implementation of the SADC Protocol for the Control of Firearms, Ammunition and Related Materials. Participants were representative of all regions in Namibia.

The First National Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons was called upon by the Namibian Department of Police in association with civil society, represented by NANGOF. Providing technical and financial support to the Secretariat of the meeting were two international non-governmental organizations, SaferAfrica and Saferworld.

An African presence was provided by keynote speakers and facilitators of plenary sessions who included officials from Angola (as Chair of SADC), Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and a representative of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Coordinating Committee (SARPCCO). The international initiatives to control the illicit trade in arms in all its aspects were represented by Ambassador M. Donowaki from Japan, Ambassador C. Dos Santos from Mozambique, and Ambassador
C. Reyes from Colombia.

The main objectives of the conference were to:

Raise public awareness among civil society;
Raise the international profile of Namibia as a country implementing the UNPoA and the Bamako Declaration through the dissemination of its recommendations; and
Inform about the nature of national, regional and international commitments of the Namibian government in the area of the illicit trade in small arms.

The Right Honourable Prime Minister of Namibia, Theo-Ben Gurirab MP, officially opened the Conference. Other officials in the welcoming session included the Hon. Jerry Ekandjo, Minister for Home Affairs, and Lt-Gen. Lukas Hangula, Inspector General of Police. The Hon. Dep. Minister of Home Affairs, Loide Kasingo undertook the closure.

The Conference and Its Decisions

The Conference agenda consisted of an opening session, eight working sessions and a closing session. The eight working sessions reviewed the following topics: The United Nations Programme of Action and the African Initiatives on Small Arms and Light Weapons; the Regional initiatives on Small Arms in Southern Africa; the nature of the Implementation of Commitments; Namibian national initiatives and challenges to implementation; five working sessions on emerging partnerships between government and non-governmental organizations on education, development, collection of information, research and community support systems; and two parallel sessions for the provision of general recommendations of immediate action by civil society and government.

After extensively reviewing the issue of small arms proliferation in general, and the control of firearms and ammunition in particular, and the nature of the initiatives undertaken to prevent, combat and eradicate the problem globally, regionally and nationally, the Conference agreed that:

The proliferation and illicit trade in small arms and light weapons poses many and serious challenges to the Namibian government and people: It is a multifaceted scourge that negatively affects all aspects of human society, security and civilization and it also presents a grave threat to international peace and security and sustainable development.
While Africa is not really the primary source of manufacturing small arms and light weapons, our people are today the greatest victims. This heavy burden is further being added to the costly demands of the horrific war that we have to wage in Africa against poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and underdevelopment. To combat these evils regional as well as national measures need to be implemented.
In order for national measures to be successful they require a favourable regional environment. Namibia is actively supporting the peace efforts and negotiations in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and encourage those sister countries to sustain the momentum towards a peaceful and prosperous future for all their respective countries: without political stability and good neighbourly relations among African countries and peoples, the proud vision of the African Union (AU) and the implementation of NEPAD will not go far enough in enhancing sustainable development and social progress.
The implementation of NEPAD demands practical action on common threats to African Peace and Security which include the prevention, combating and eradication of the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons.
Regional measures that have been agreed to combat this scourge are the OAU Ministerial Declaration on a Common African Approach to the Illicit Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (Bamako 2000) and the legally binding Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition and Related Materials, which Namibia has signed and ratified. Further, Namibia has signed the 2001 United Nations Plan of Action for the Prevention, Combating and Eradication of the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.
Since regional measures can only be realized through strong commitment to concrete national action, Namibia is prepared to fulfil its obligations through commencing a comprehensive and sustainable effort in support of the SADC Protocol on Firearms.

Government and civil society representatives at the Conference believe that:

Namibia must encourage all members of SADC to sign and ratify the SADC Protocol as soon as possible. The signature and ratification of the SADC Protocol by all members of SADC will strengthen Namibia’s law enforcement capacity. This will, in turn, improve our ongoing efforts to better control the movement, seizure and destruction of illicit small arms and light weapons that are negatively impacting on Namibian peace and security.
Namibia must encourage the national coordination and implementation of action through a new partnership between civil society and government. No Government alone can fight this global scourge: It requires a concerted effort from all segments of the society to ensure success and root out this threat and menace to the society.
Namibia needs to encourage collaborative action across all agencies of the state, across all lines of parliament, and all sectors of the public. Recent research and existing statistics now make clearer and more obvious the link between rising crime and firearms proliferation. Small arms and light weapons proliferation is a threat both to governance and to people. This demands a set of concrete measures that are largely centred on the improvement of legislation, the strengthening of professional law enforcement capacity, the provision of an environment of safety for the public, the combating of the illicit trade in arms, the strong regulation of supply, and the reduction of demand.
Namibia needs to engage in a national public awareness process and undertake education initiatives as part of its commitments to the SADC Protocol. All countries and specially affected countries need to design ways and means to educate our populations on disarmament, peace and tole-rance. Schools and Universities have to teach about the effect of arms in our families and societies.

For all of these reasons, the Conference recommends that government, in close association and partnership with civil society, must commence effective and concrete action through the development and implementation of a national plan for arms management and disarmament as the most important manner in which it can comply with all the aspects of the SADC Protocol as well as serve the national objectives of peace, safety, security and progress in Namibia.

Towards Concrete Action: Needs and Challenges
In order to advance towards these common goals, Conference participants discussed and agreed on a set of basic needs that can assist in setting action in motion. These needs relate to the creation of coordination and action frameworks, to the building of capacity based on appropriate and effective information, and to develop a new partnership between government and civil society stakeholders in the implementation of action. These needs are expressed in the SADC Protocol on Firearms and the OAU Bamako Declaration, which should become guiding principles for Namibian action.

The conference identified the following pre-requisites for action:

1. The Need to Establish a National Focal Point: Participants considered that the implementation of commitments internationally and regionally depends on the establishment of National focal points as mandated by both the SADC, Protocol, OAU and UN processes. National Focal Points are needed to comprehensively address the problem of proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Sub-region, and ensure adequate laws, regulations and administrative procedures for effective control over the possession and transfer of these arms at the national level. The National Focal Points should have specific responsibilities, namely:

Coordinating in implementation of the Agenda for Action;

Coordinating and interacting with other National Focal Points;

Coordinating and interacting with civil society;

Facilitating the exchange and dissemination of information;

Conducting and facilitating research;

Identifying and applying lessons learned; and

Building capacity for a sustainable approach to the problem of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

2. The need to implement the SADC Protocol in all its articles:
The signing of the SADC Protocol in August 2001 provides a solid foundation and framework for tackling small arms in the region. This Protocol represents one of the strongest regional agreements on small arms in the world today. However, the Protocol now needs to be implemented and the implementation phase is one where a strong working partnership between civil society and government and between SADC member-states with each other is needed.

The implementation of the SADC Protocol also needs to look beyond the structures that agreed this framework. Implementation will need to be done on a very practical level, with the continued political support provided through the SADC Secretariat and the leadership of action delegated to the Regional Police Chiefs through SARPCCO.

But the nature of the small arms problem is such that policing alone cannot solve it. It requires a strong legislative base, it requires an effective system of governance, it requires the support of civil society and perhaps most importantly, it requires the support and confidence of those directly affected by these weapons. Above all, it requires continual political will. With this in mind, it is very encouraging to see that there is Parliamentary support in this process which is essential for the efficient and effective implementation of both the individual steps and of the protocol as a whole. The regional nature of the small arms problem makes Parliamentary support for the implementation of the Protocol important on a regional level and in this respect the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s support for this process is desirable

3. The need to review and develop ways in which to improve the operational action of the police through a number of priority areas.
Police priority areas should include:

Training
There is a need within the Namibian police to train and inform all police officials of the needs, responsibilities and requirements placed on them and the Namibian police as an organisation to control the wide spread proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in terms of the SADC Protocol and the UNPoA. Cross-national agency training is needed to involve departments such as customs, military, wild life and judiciary. This type of training will improve the coordination of information exchange; promote joint operations and resource utilisation on Namibian borders. Attention must also be placed at the recruitment level to ensure their professional minimum standards.
National Data Base
Whilst Namibia has an electronic database that captures the registration of civilian owned firearms, this database must be updated and expanded to give access to all police officials to the information contained in this database on a 24-hour basis. This will improve information concerning confiscated and seized firearms as well as improve the level of investigations. This database also must include, although for limited access, information on state owned firearms.
Stockpile management and Destruction
Namibia has inherited large numbers of small arms and light weapons as well as explosives from the liberation struggle and the civil wars in neighbouring states. There is an onus on Namibia to manage and secure this inherited problem in a responsible and practical manner. It is important to ensure that stockpile management of small arms, light weapons and explosives is conducted in a manner that it does not become part of the existing illicit pool of small arms and light weapons in the region. Both the SADC Protocol and the UNPoA strongly encourage the destruction of surplus, redundant or obsolete small arms and light weapons. The destruction of small arms and light weapons is an important facet of stockpile management in that in represents a permanent removal of the small arm and light weapon from society. Finally, in Namibia, illegal possession of firearms is a punishable offence and once the suspect is finally prosecuted and sentenced, his firearm is confiscated by the state and eventually destroyed.
Interagency cooperation and information sharing
It is of the utmost importance that in any country the various agencies involved in law enforcement and national security co-ordinate and co-operate their actions so as to make the best use of the scarce resources available to them in achieving a common goal in dealing with the problem of the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons. To achieve this common goal the agencies involved must share information among each other on a daily basis. The interagency co-operation and information sharing will also contribute to improving interagency trust and yield better results.
Public Awareness and Education Programmes
The fight against the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons is a partnership between government and civil society. Nowhere is this better emphasised than in the role that civil society can play in raising public awareness concerning the dangers of illicit small arms and light weapons. Civil society‘s close relationship with the community it operates in makes it the ideal vehicle to drive any public awareness and education programmes. The police must work in partnership with civil society on this issue.
Legislation review
To control all the aspects of firearms, countries must have good legislation. If comprehensive legislation is not in place, the effectiveness of other measures, for instance to tighten border controls, raise awareness of the dangers and the impact of the misuse of firearms, or improve the capacity of law enforcement agencies, will be undermined. At the same time, it is also true that strong legislation alone will only have a limited impact should there be a lack of capacity in other areas, such as law enforcement.

Article 5 of the SADC Protocol sets forth detailed provisions that should be incorporated into national firearms legislation. These include among other provisions instituting restrictions on civilian possession of arms, ensuring standardised marking, controlling civilian possession, usage and storage, ensuring the centralized registration of civilian owned firearms, instituting controls on the activities of brokers, and co-ordinating import, export and transit procedures.

Good firearm legislation should inform the responsibilities of firearm owners, strengthen the potential of the State to control firearms and enhance the capacity of the police to implement controls and protect citizens. It is crucial that legislation be easy to understand, by both those involved in enforcement and the general public and that it be easy to enforce.

4. Improved Border Controls and targeted development: When conflicts end, small arms loose their political character and acquire economic and criminal values. The SADC Protocol emerged largely as a result of peace and stability in the Southern African region which brought about increased availability and movement of illicit small arms across our borders. Peace in our neighbouring Angola will present a challenge to the manner in which we can control the illicit movement of arms flowing out of past conflict areas. The existence of caches and of great availability of arms in the hands of civilians and ex combatants in the immediate region of Namibia demands a review and sustained effort to control our borders and entry points. It also points in the direction of sustained efforts to provide alternatives for economic development and poverty alleviation in high risk regions of Namibia so as to make the trafficking of arms less attractive as an economic alternative. Traditional leaders have a role to play as well as civil society and the active participation of the private sector in the development of these alternatives. The most important thing here is to ensure environmentally sustainable projects that would be adequately managed and have oversight to ensure their prosperity.

5. Involvement of civil society as partner of government on all actions to combat small arms proliferation: In Namibia, there is not much awareness of disarmament or arms trade issues in society. Ownership of small arms not discussed. One of biggest obstacles to progress in tackling the problem is the lack of awareness.

Here, civil society organisations are already involved in crime awareness and crime prevention, such as working with juvenile offenders. There are a number of community crime prevention organisations based in the rural areas. In the urban areas, crime prevention organisations exist. These organisations focus on awareness raising and education, and initiatives to combat petty crime. For civil society organisations, small arms proliferation is a developmental issue. The more illegal arms there are in the country, the bigger the impact on development. Small arms also impact on businesses by creating an insecure environment for business operations. To be able to engage in effective partnership with government, civil society participants identified the following needs that must be met:

Need for development of trust between governments, law enforcement agencies and NGOs, at both national and local levels.
Need to ensure the security and protection of witnesses. People are prepared to give information to the police, but feel afraid.
Need to increase awareness of the laws governing firearms and the licensing procedures, including the SADC protocol and national legislation.
There needs to be greater emphasis on personal human security.
There is a need to increase awareness of the dangers posed by small arms, and the impact they have on the population.
There is need to strengthen border controls and to protect people living in border areas. These people are vulnerable to livestock theft and their households are at risk.
There is a need to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations. Organisations need greater levels of information so that they can interact with law enforcement agencies.
At the local level, there is a need to establish police-community liaison forums, so that the public can give information to the police and that these forums can help to foster trust.

Specific recommendations of work that can be undertaken in partnership between government and civil society can be divided into five general areas of potential partnership:

Education, Training and Public Awareness
Micro-development and business sector projects
Information collection, arms collection and monitoring
Research and facilitation including the building of trust
Community support mechanisms and projects

However, confidence building and trust need to be raised to ensure effective partnership between government and civil society on these issues. We need to start generating joint projects as a means of confidence building. These could include the following:

Public campaigns to make people aware of the dangers and effect of small arms and light weapons on society.
Run seminars and workshops to bridge the gap between civil society and government and facilitate information sharing as well as to map the way forward.
Galvanize civil society support to assist police in monitoring and tracing legal weapons that become illicit as a result of robbery.
Mobilize civil society to play a pro-active role in addressing the problem of SALW through greater interaction with government in identifying, developing, managing and implementing best practices.
To identify all stakeholders and actors to drive the initiatives to resolve, prevent, manage and eradicate the SALW problem.
To identify supply and demand factors through research, surveys and interviews or using indigenous methods of information gathering.
Involve the media to publicize on the importance of SALW control and the dangers that SALW pose for society.

Participants further agreed that for a collective action in partnership to take place a pre-requisite for action is having the correct information. Prior research therefore is fundamental to effective action. The recommended research areas here would be:

Research on what research has already been undertaken or is currently underway.
Basic data on licensed firearms, statistics on ownership, and statistics on thefts. (Some of this information can be gathered from newspaper reports).
Research (including field research) on prevalence of small arms availability in society, including identifying concentration of arms in different regions, the numbers of firearms available in households, etc.
Research on sources and flows, especially on cross-border flows (from Angola).
Research on the impact of weapons on Namibian society. The public health impact (including injuries and deaths caused by weapons). The social impact (including crime statistics).
Research on the status of legislation (the new act), and where the gaps exist with the SADC protocol. Research on the deterrent mechanism (eg penalties and fines).
Research as to why people in Namibia want to acquire weapons (either licit or illicit). This would help to assess attitudes. Also help to assess strategies to remove arms from society (through amnesties and ‘weapons for development’ projects).

Public awareness and trust need to be also considered to support communities in their fight against illicit arms and firearms related violence. Some projects that were recommended include:

Public awareness workshops in different regions. These workshops will inform communities about problems that could be created by illegal firearms. The suggestion was both community and police should take initiative to prevent these problems.
Training of youth was also recommended since they were seen as the target group used by the criminals to either move firearm from one area to another or recruited to the group.
There is a need for dissemination of materials and documents such as the SADC Protocol among government officials, civil society organizations and communities. Training of police officials and community organization regarding the content of these documents is vital. Without knowing what the SADC protocol is saying about small arms these issues will no be resolve either by police or community organizations.

The Way Forward

To be able to commence partner projects between government and civil society in all of these key areas of concern, the conference recommends the following immediate actions:

Coordination on Civil Society networking for information dissemination

The establishment of a coordinating mechanism at civil society level to assist and facilitate the collection and dissemination of information is vital. Participants nominated NANGOF to act as such a body to drive the process of information dissemination. In turn NANGOF will be supported by a Task Group composed of the following organizations and individuals: National Society for Human Rights, Khomas Women in Development, Peace Center, Mr. Stefan Schultz and Mr. Des Radmore.

These organizations and individuals would collaborate to take leadership in informing other organizations and the broader society about the deliberations and recommendations of the conference in order to elicit support and participation from society. For this purpose a workshop will be called by NANGOF on date still to be determined and the relevant background information documents will be produced and disseminated. The priority way forward for civil society is therefore the following:

The need for the organization and running of a consultative and information sharing workshop for civil society to focus on: assisting civil society to identify a common approach to address the problem; educate and train civil society on awareness raising, define the role that civil society can play by looking at examples in other countries and ensure ownership.
Data collection and research on the extent of the problem of small arms and its impact on society.
Deepen discussions among civil society organizations and create a platform for continuous debate between civil society and government.

Establishment of a National Focal Point and Development of a National Plan of Action based on effective needs assessment:

The Conference recommends that the National Focal Point of Namibia be officially established comprising the Department of Police as lead agency, and key government agencies as its members including: Police, Justice, Immigration, Customs, Defence and Foreign Affairs. Other relevant agencies and civil society organizations can be included if so decided.

It is proposed that the National Focal Point’s lead agency will be responsible for the creation of a National Plan of Action. The Plan of Action should commence with a national needs assessment and mapping process to ensure that the emerging plan of action is informed, practical and feasible. The National Focal Point must also ensure that the Plan is compatible and in compliance with the SADC Protocol.

The National Focal Point will be responsible for management and oversight of the implementation of the National Plan.

It is further recommended that the National Focal Point be supported by a committee that includes civil society membership and that provides resources (both material and technical) for the national plan implementation.

The Conference further recommends that capacity be built in the Department of Police so that it can act as lead agency and secretariat to the National Focal Point and that resources be made available for the creation of regional link structures with the national focal point.

Resources must be made available or raised to ensure appropriate planning and distribution of assessment responsibilities, action and timeframes in developing the national plan.

The national focal point must also ensure that civil society becomes an effective partner to the national plan and to its implementation through consultation, partnership on certain components of the plan, and through public awareness that can include the use of different types of structures for dissemination of information, such as the SADC national committee, the media, and the civil society networks.

Finally, the Conference recommends that any national needs assessment ordered by the National Focal Point in order to create an efficient National Plan include as a minimum the following:

An assessment of the present legislation, its loopholes and needs vis-à-vis the recommendations of the SADC Protocol.
An assessment of the existing capacity and performance of law enforcement agencies
An assessment of the porosity in border controls and in key entry points to Namibia.
An assessment of the nature of firearms related crime in Namibia through police docket research.
The conduct of representative quantitative and qualitative surveys of the impact of firearm related violence on the Namibian population
An assessment of existing resources that are available for action on firearms controls and an assessment of resources that need to be raised.

A national inter-agency planning session to discuss these assessments needs at length should be called upon as soon as feasible. Parliament must also remain seized on its responsibility to support these actions.
Conclusion

The First Namibian Conference in support of the Implementation of the SADC Protocol on Firearms and Ammunition believes that the interest of Namibia and its peoples is best served through concrete collaborative action between government and civil society and between Namibia and its neighbours. With the effective management of controls over the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, the strengthening of controls over legal possession, and the construction of an effective partnership with the people, Namibia will not only comply with its commitments but also improve the environment required for development, peace and prosperity to take root in the nation.

Windhoek, 9 of October, 2002

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Conference Report - First National Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons in Support of the Implementation of the SADC Protocol on Firearms and Ammunition, Windhoek, Namibia

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