AFR/176
DC/2663*

ACCRA WORKSHOP ADOPTS MODALITIES FOR ARMS REGISTER AND DATABASE IN AFRICA

ACCRA, 28 September (UN Information Center) -- Africa may soon boast one of the most comprehensive Arms Registers on Light Weapons in the world, if the recommendations of a two-day international workshop which closed here on Friday, 24 September, are fully implemented. Africa is one of the first regions in the world to envisage practical measures to reverse the proliferation and misuse of military-style small arms.

Representatives and experts from more than 20 African countries, research institutes and African sub-regional economic communities who attended the workshop reached agreement on the technical and policy issues that need to be addressed to ensure the development of a comprehensive, Internet-accessible Arms Register and Database to provide detailed data on military-style light weapons, their production within Africa and transfers to the continent.

The Arms Register and Database envisaged by the Workshop is expected to provide data on seven categories of light weapons whose misuse has caused the deaths of millions of Africans since 1960. Participants agreed that the Arms Register should contain information concerning the import, export, manufacture, seizure and military arms holdings of light weapons. This information should be available to national governments, inter-governmental institutions and non- governmental organizations, research institutes, military institutions, security and law enforcement agencies (including regional Interpol office�s), arms suppliers and manufacturers, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Organization of American States (OAS).

It was agreed that the Database should contain the following types of data with respect to the arms themselves: manufacture designation, users' designation, serial number, model number, caliber, country of origin, date of import/export/sale, date of manufacture, date and port of entry, date and port of export, mode of transfer, parts (frame, slide and barrel numbers), range and weapon marking to identify the holding country. The data concerning ammunition should include: designation, caliber, serial number and batch number.

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* Press Release DC/2661 of 27 September should have been DC/2662.

- - 2 - Press Release AFR/176 DC/2663 28 September 1999

A working group of experts will be convened to produce a prototype of the Arms Register and Database based on the above parameters. It was agreed that another workshop should be convened, during which Member States would have an opportunity to view the prototype, with a view to approving its implementation.

The Register and Database could serve as a regional mechanism to complement the Register of Conventional Arms maintained by the United Nations Secretary-General since 1992, to which fewer than a dozen African countries made contributions in 1997. The Register and Database discussed at the Workshop would represent a major innovation vis-�-vis other Arms Registers, such as those maintained by the OAS and the United Nations Conventional Arms Register. The Arms Register and Database envisaged for Africa will be Internet-or Web-based, with the possibility of regular updating.

The Accra Workshop was convened within the framework of the Programme for the Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED), established by the United Nations and funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is charged with implementing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Moratorium on Light Weapons.

During the opening ceremony on Thursday, 23 September, the Vice-President of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills, called for the expansion and transformation of the ECOWAS Moratorium, from a declaration covering only the West African subregion, into an African regional convention on the control of light weapons whose provisions would be legally binding on all State parties.

Also speaking at the opening, the Director of the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, Ivor Richard Fung, and the Director of the Department of Information of ECOWAS, Adrienne Diop, each lauded the historic weapons-control initiatives under way in West Africa. They described the Arms Register and Database as an instrument capable of building trust, strengthening cooperation among States, reinforcing transparency and promoting research on arms issues on the continent.

At the closing session, Ghana's Minister of Defence, Lt. Col. E.K.T. Donkoh, stated, "this project will contribute to the removal of threats to the security, stability and defence of our country and the subregion and, thereby, create the enabling environment for economic growth and the pursuit of the objectives of ECOWAS�. He added, "this workshop could not have taken place at a better time as it aims to utilize the benefits of modern information technology for good governance and political stability. Let us all put our shoulders to the wheel to make the next century Africa's century of peace, progress and prosperity�.

The Accra Workshop was organized by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, in collaboration with ECOWAS and the Government of Ghana, with funding from the Netherlands.

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United Nations