WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-02-26 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
February 24, 200
Addis Ababa
Parliamentarians from the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa, whose member states are signatories to the Nairobi Protocol for the prevention, control and reduction of small arms and light weapons urged Thursday for the implementation of the protocol.
The parliamentarians, who ended a two-day meeting in Addis Ababa on Thursday, said that they acknowledged the rationale for the 2nd Regional Parliamentary Forum on the implementation of the Nairobi Protocol for the prevention, control and reduction of small arms and light weapons has been quite timely.
During the deliberations the parliamentarians emphasized, among other concerns, the need for: every government in the region to institutionalize legislative frameworks relevant to the Nairobi Protocol; parliamentarians to be empowered with target knowledge on the risks of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons; the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA) to offer opportunities for national focal points and parliamentarians to get exposed to, participate in, contribute to, and help implement of regional, sub-regional and international protocols on the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
They also discussed the need for national focal points, parliamentarians, law enforcement agencies and the related partners to seek more avenues for sustainable collaboration, negotiation, integration and agreement on demand and supply of small arms and light weapons in the region, sub-region and internationally.
In their recommendations, the parliamentarians suggested that all signatories of the Nairobi Protocol and the related partners should endeavor to increase their network through research, communication and interaction on matters of prevention, control and reduction of these arms in the region.
They mentioned the complexity of the world today, especially the political economy of small arms and light weapons, and proposed the need for a more holistic and multi-dimensional approach to the fight against the proliferation of these arms. According to their suggestion, governments, civil societies and target partners should be brought on board for a comprehensive and participatory decision-making at all levels of the community and the government.
In their recommendation the parliamentarians made a consensus on cooperation of the member states, responsibility and accountability to their citizens in the region, advocacy and influence their governments in the construction, funding and implementation of effective legal frameworks and procedures in the fight against arms proliferation, and called upon governments to respond to the UN secretary general’s letter of February 16, seeking views on the feasibility, scope and draft parameters for a comprehensive legally binding instrument establishing common standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms before April 30, 2007.
The Nairobi Protocol on the problem of illicit small arms and light weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa was signed on March 15, 2000 by representatives of the governments of Burundi, Democratic Republic Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons mission is to coordinate action against small arms and light weapons proliferation in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa.
Addressing the 2nd Parliamentary Forum, Ambassador Teshome Toga, speaker of the House, said that many countries in the world are faced with increasing proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons, with the region being the worst affected. “For us, illegal small arms and light weapons are ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ exacerbating urban crime, cross-border and intra-national conflicts, wide-spread cattle rustling and multiplicity of rebel movements, all of which have caused injury and death to hundreds of thousands of people, disintegrated societies, retarded economic development and created failed states.” The easy availability of these weapons fuel new conflicts and make the peaceful resolution of existing ones difficult, he said.
He also said that as legislators, the parliamentarians had the ability to push for parliamentary legislation on small arms and light weapons. Individually as opinion makers and role models, can and must be in the forefront in advocacy and public education to influence a positive outcome in the regional struggle against the proliferation and use of illegal firearms.
“Let me, however, emphasize that the problem can not be conclusively tackled without addressing the underlying factors of demand, and the root causes such as poverty, bad governance and insecurity,” Teshome said.
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In addition to this, he added, the parliamentarians need to adopt regional approach to bring peace and stability in the region. “In this regard, special attention must be given to Somalia as the country has enormous illegal firearms that could be the source of in security and criminal activity.”
The speaker of the House mentioned Ethiopia’s effort in taking appropriate measures to deal with the problems associated with illegal firearms. In this regard, he said, the introduction of the 1996 Penal Code on firearms, the destruction of small arms and light weapons in October 2006 seized from criminals, and the current effort to draft a comprehensive firearms law in line with the Nairobi Protocol are worth mentioning. “Ethiopia remains committed to the regional peace and stability and will do whatever is required to implement the Nairobi Declaration and Protocol in order further to contribute to the stability of the region.”
Deputy Commander Yemane Gessesew, Ethiopian National Focal Point representative for the Nairobi Protocol, told The Reporter that the government had seized over 11,000 illegal firearms from criminals in the past years, out of which 1,700 illegal weapons were destroyed. The National Focal Point was officially launched in Addis Ababa on September 29, 2004.
Source: All Africa
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200702240157.htm…br>
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