§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government: Whether they and the New Partnership for Africa's Development are assisting the Southern African Development Community to harmonise and enhance weapons control; and if so, how. [HL4842]
§ The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos):The UK Government are supporting efforts to harmonise and enhance weapons controls in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region through assistance to NGOs, such as Saferworld and SaferAfrica, and to governments such as Mozambique and Tanzania.
Saferworld and SaferAfrica are working with SADC member states on the implementation of the 24WA SADC Protocol on the Control of Firearms and Ammunition. Examples of activities include analysis of existing arms control legislation in the region and assistance in the development of harmonised legislation across SADC. SaferAfrica is also working with the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-Operation Organisation in training police officials on cross border operations to detect and destroy illicit arms caches in regions of conflict.
Saferworld and SaferAfrica also assisted the Government of Tanzania in the development of a comprehensive national action plan on small arms, which is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The UK continues to fund the implementation of this plan and is also providing funds for detailed, countrywide assessments of the small arms problem in Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. These assessments should serve as the basis for detailed national action plans in the future.
At the AU/NePAD peace and security workshop held in Addis Ababa in February 2003, SaferAfrica ensured that arms issues were included on the agenda. Small arms are one of the eight priority issues identified in the NePAD action plan.
This work is funded under the Global Conflict Prevention Pool's small arms and light weapons strategy, a £20 million programme designed to reduce armed violence and weapons proliferation around the world.