National implementation of selected arms control instruments: a legislative guide for African states

This guide aims to assist African states with the effective implementation of relevant conventional arms regimes.

This legislative guide provides African states with clear guidance on the obligations they have to ensure the effective implementation of relevant conventional arms regimes and the measures they can take to be in a position to ratify and effectively implement such regimes. It focuses on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first legally-binding treaty to regulate the legal trade in conventional arms and which lays down provisions inter alia on arms transfers related to export, import, transit, transhipment and brokering activities. The guide also makes reference to the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UNPoA) and its by-products, namely, the legally-binding sub-regional instruments in Africa such as the 2001 Protocol on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition and other related Materials in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region and the 2004 Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa (involving the East African Community). These are all important initiatives to reduce human suffering caused by the trade and misuse of conventional arms and in particular small arms and light weapons.

About the authors and contributors

Sarah Parker is a senior researcher with the Small Arms Survey. She has been engaged in small arms research since 2005 and has co-authored several publications on different aspects of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and the ATT. She served on the Australian delegation at the Third and Fourth UNPoA Biennial Meeting of States and throughout the ATT negotiations, and as a consultant to the chair of the Open-ended Working Group on an Arms Trade Treaty in 2009.

Nelson Alusala is a research consultant at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). He has a PhD in political sciences from the University of Pretoria. He previously worked for the UN Group of Experts on the DRC and the UN Panel on Liberia. His research includes conflict risk analysis, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration across Africa.

Mothepa Shadung joined the ISS in April 2015 as junior researcher in the Transnational Threats and International Crime division in Pretoria. Prior to joining the ISS, she worked as a research analyst at Coxswain Social Investment Plus in Johannesburg and as a research assistant and peer tutor in the international relations department of the University of the Witwatersrand. Mothepa holds a Masters (cum laude) degree in international relations from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Noël Stott leads the Arms Management Programme and the Weapons of Mass Destruction programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The aim of these programmes are to identify and enhance Africa’s role in international efforts to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation. He has been employed by the ISS since 2002 and has extensive experience in many aspects of arms control, including conventional arms, small arms and light weapons and weapons of mass destruction.