rwanda to host united nations regional meeting on programme of action

 

on small arms in kigali, 8-9 july

 

Rwanda will host a United Nations regional meeting on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons for States of the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region and Southern Africa, on 8 and 9 July, in Kigali, the capital.

The meeting is organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), through its United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) and in collaboration with the Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and Bordering States (RECSA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).  The event is supported by the Governments of Austria and Norway.

Officials from Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been invited to participate.  Officials of international, regional and subregional organizations, including the African Union, RECSA and SADC, as well as representatives from civil society, are also expected.

Invited to attend the meeting is Pablo Macedo of Mexico, Chair-designate of the Fourth Biennial Meeting of States on the Programme of Action (2010), which is formally known as the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

The Kigali event is the second in a series of regional meetings planned in follow-up to the report of the Third Biennial Meeting of States held in New York from 14 to 18 July 2008.  The report stresses the importance of regional approaches to implementation of the Programme of Action, and underscores the usefulness of convening regional meetings, particularly in the years between the global biennial meetings of States (see disarmament.un.org/cab/bms3/1BMS3Pages/1thirdBMS.html).

In accordance with the report’s recommendations, the Kigali meeting aims to consider and advance implementation of the Programme of Action at the regional level.  At the first meeting of the series, held on 22 and 23 June in Sydney, Australia, for States of the Pacific region, participants developed draft regional implementation guidelines for the Programme of Action for further consideration at the national level.

For further information, contact unoda-web@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record