ECOWAS: Nigeria seeks binding laws on arms transfer, puts illicit weapons in circulation at 8 Million

The Nigerian Government has decried the lack of universally acceptable legally binding instrument to regulate the transfer of arms and ammunition, saying existing legislations are either regionally or nationally based and have no universal application, thereby making it difficult to track the end users and end use of weapons.

Permanent Secretary of Nigerian’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Amb. Martin Uhomoigbhi stated this at the opening of a seminar – “Towards Future Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty’’ (ATT), jointly organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and ECOWAS in Abuja, recently.

Amb. Uhomoigbhi attributed the current prevalence of conflicts in Africa largely to the acquisition of illicit arms and ammunition by various criminal gangs including terrorists and insurgents particularly in small arms and light weapons.

He pointed out that the only universally recognized instrument is the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, which he added, is limited to only seven categories without the inclusion of small arms and light weapons. “Consequently, the initial reliance on the Register in determining the scope of weapons to be covered by the Arms Trade Treaty was considered incomplete without the inclusion of small arms and light weapons, as well as ammunition parts and components”, Uhomoigbhi stated.

He further maintained that the menace of illicit small arms and light weapons have remained a daunting challenge adding that transfer of weapons across African borders has been facilitated by the porous nature of  the borders.

Uhomoigbhi disclosed that the challenge of illicit transfer of arms and ammunition has been of  great concern to Africa and ECOWAS, resulting in the adoption of the Bamako declaration on illicit circulation, proliferation and transfer of small arms and light weapons by the African union in 2000.

“For Africa and ECOWAS, the menace of illicit small arms and light weapons has remained very daunting. The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, in their presentation at the African preparatory conference in Addis Ababa, in 2013, speaking on the situation in Africa, noted that Africa lost about 250 billion dollars as a result of conflicts and illicit transfer of arms.
ECOWAS MEETING

R-L- Nigeria Minister of foreign affairs(9th), Acting Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria Charles Baah(8th)

“Furthermore, available statistics indicate that there are between 7-8 million illicit small arms and light weapons in circulation in West Africa”, he disclosed.

The Permanent Secretary added that a look at the status of ratification by state parties showed that since the opening of the instrument for signature and ratification by the repository on the 3rd of April, 2013, a total of 118 countries have signed the treaty, “leaving us with additional 18 ratifications to bring the number of ratifications to the required 50 before the instrument will enter into force” he added.

He said available records on the UN website showed that out of the 118 countries that have signed the treaty, only 29 are from Africa including Nigeria and Mali. He stressed that the robust posture of African experts for the duration of the ATT negotiations, the impression would be that African states would be among the first to ratify the treaty.

In his opening remarks, Head of Delegation, ICRC, Nigeria, Zoran Jovanovic,  disclosed that this year marked the 12thanniversary of their cooperation with ECOWAS Commission, adding that the ICRC has provided technical support to the development of the ECOWAS Common Position (ECP) which enabled ECOWAS Member states to negotiate in a coordinated manner during the negotiations, leading to the final adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty as well as the eventual inclusion of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition and the humanitarian criterion.

Jovanovic observed that on 2 April 2013, the United Nations General Assembly, through Resolution 67/234, adopted the Arms Trade Treaty and by 3 June 2013 it was opened for signature, adding that the ATT will enter into force 90 days following the date of the deposit of the fiftieth instrument of ratification.

He further revealed that many non-governmental organizations, governments and civil society organizations across the world have been working tirelessly to promote ratification of the treaty. “It is in recognition of this effort that the ICRC and ECOWAS have organized this seminar titled ‘Towards Implementation of the ATT’ in order to begin to focus on the technicalities that might arise in the implementing the treaty and be better positioned for implementation, once the treaty comes into force, the challenge will be implementation and enforcement of the instrument along with other relevant international humanitarian law treaties, he added.

The Head of Delegation, ICRC said Member States in the region have demonstrated a steady effort towards signing and ratifying international instruments pertaining to IHL including the ATT. He added that ratification of treaties is only a first step, saying if International Humanitarian Law (IHL) treaties are to be fully respected, it is of paramount importance that these treaties must be formally adopted by all States not only through ratification or accession but States must then enact national legislation and take practical measures in order for the rules to be fully effective.

“If a State accepts a treaty, it needs to adapt its national law to conform to the treaty or create a national law explicitly incorporating the treaty or else citizens cannot rely on it and judges cannot apply it” he explained.