Small Arms and Light Weapons Marking Machines Donated to Burkina Faso, Niger,

 

National Workshop to Be Held on Arms Marking, Registration in West Africa

The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will donate a small arms and light weapons marking machine to both Burkina Faso and Niger to fight small arms proliferation.  This was made possible by funding from the European Union to UNODA.

In addition, UNODA and UNODC are organizing training workshops on marking and registration of small arms and light weapons in Burkina Faso and Niger for the national armed and security forces.  The workshops will strengthen the capacity of national authorities to identify and trace illicit small arms, and implement best practices for marking weapons.  In the context of South-South cooperation, the National Commission on Small Arms of Côte d'Ivoire will share its experience in carrying out national marking programmes.

This UNODA-UNODC cooperation will provide assistance to African States in implementing the International Tracing Instrument and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, additional to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

These activities are part of the joint United Nations-European Union support programme, which enables UNODA to provide small arms and light weapons-marking machines to three countries in West Africa.  A previous activity was held in Togo.  They also are part of UNODC’s Global Project on Firearms and of its contribution to the United Nations initiative on the Sahel, funded by Japan, which aims at fighting transnational organized crime, including terrorism and the illicit trafficking of firearms.

Adopted in 2005 by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Tracing Instrument was established to support the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms, and to provide a comprehensive framework to address the problem of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.  The Protocol on Firearms is designed to strengthen and harmonize international cooperation in this field and to develop coherent mechanisms to prevent, combat and eradicate manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts, components and ammunition.

For more information, please contact Jérôme Tatrabor, United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, at tel.:  +228 22 53 50 00, e-mail:  mail@unrec.org.

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For information media • not an official record