Practical Solutions to Small Arms Control in Africa 2007

Conventional wisdom on small arms control dictates that to manage the stock of small arms at a national level requires a number of fundamental components. It entails: sound policy and legislation outlying who may possess small arms in which quantities, of what type and under which circumstances; these small arms should be traceable via some form of authorization procedure such as a certificate or license, of which records are kept on a centralized database, and the police should have the authority to act against any person contravening the legislation.

Many countries in Africa are confronted by an anomaly in that these fundamental components of small arms management are absent or partial. The legacy of colonization implies that many national laws governing small arms are outdated. Law enforcement officials have no means of reliably tracing whether a firearm is legal or illegal. The absence of these basic controls on the legal stock of small arms hampers the effective management of these weapons. Added to this picture, are the massive stocks of uncontrolled and unregulated small arms remaining from conflicts and liberation struggles. These weapons have been inadequately collected and destroyed, and have become instrumental in fuelling crime in the post-conflict periods leading to the destabilization of the young democracies.

IQPC in partnership with SaferAfrica present the PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO SMALL ARMS CONTROL IN AFRICA 2007. The conference presents how the governments in Africa are systematically tackling these issues pertaining to small arms control. From this conference you can expect to come away with a sound grasp on all the practical small arms measures in place in Africa for the control of illicit proliferation, trafficking, trade and safe disposal of small arms and light weapons. These include an understanding of the:

the evolution of the debate on the control of small arms at an international, continental and regional level;
international, continental and regional instruments dealing with small arms;
the role and cooperation of multi-lateral initiatives;
the dominant African approaches to the control of small arms;
the application of national action plans as a measure for responding to the magnitude of the small arms problem;

The conference places strong emphasis on using practical examples to demonstrate the approaches for enhancing controls on small arms to ensure that the knowledge is based on best practice as applied in Africa today. The conference is relevant to all persons wanting to grasp the full spectrum of debates and approaches to small arms control. It gathers together the most knowledgeable and relevant practitioners on the issue of small arms control relevant to Africa.

You can register online by visiting: http://www.iqpc.com/za/smallarms