Date: 18 August 2000

Summarised Presentation of The Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

1. The Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

The ISS is an independent, non-profit, applied policy research institute with offices in Pretoria and Cape Town. Its mission is to enhance human security in Africa. This it aims to achieve through independent applied research and the dissemination of information that can inform decisions on critical areas of individual, national, regional and international security. It engages with local and international organisations and governments in pursuing its work.

The ISS has a range of funders, some of the larger ones being the European Community, United Nations Development Programme, the British Department for International Development, and Nedcor. More details about funders and about the ISS are available on its website at http://www.iss.co.za.

The Institute is guided by the advice of its international advisory board and operates under the patronage of the Secretary General of the OAU, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim.

2. International, Continental and Regional efforts to strengthen firearms control.

The Firearms Control Bill should be analysed both on its own merits, i.e. in relation to the contribution it will make to enhance human security in South Africa, and in relation to how it fits in with ongoing international developments that are aimed at the improving controls over firearms world-wide. We are of the view that the Bill will make a positive contribution to both human security in South Africa and towards meeting international obligations and standards. However, this presentation will focus mainly on the latter aspect.

2.1 International Developments and Initiatives:

2.1.1 The Vienna Firearms Protocol

In November 1998, the General Assembly of the United Nations directed that an international protocol against the illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms be negotiated by member states. Since then, delegations from more than 110 states (including South Africa) have met in Vienna on ten occasions to develop such a protocol as well as a convention against organised crime. The protocol aims at introducing measures that will be binding internationally and that will improve international cooperation to, inter alia, prevent and combat the illicit trafficking of firearms. The protocol is expected to be finalised during October 2000.

Some of the aspects of the draft protocol that are of relevance when considering the new Firearms Control Bill are:

In our view the Firearms Control Bill is broadly in line with the draft provisions in the Vienna protocol. The approval by Parliament of the Bill will facilitate South Africa’s accession to the Vienna protocol once it has been finalised.

2.1.2 United Nations 2001 Process

During 1995 the then UN Secretary General, Boutros-Boutros Ghali, made an urgent call for measures to manage and enhance "micro-disarmament" in order to put a stop to the uncontrolled proliferation of small arms and light weapons. A UN Panel of Experts on small arms and light weapons was created to analyse the problem. South Africa became the first member state of the UN of the South to respond to this call and to be included in the panel of experts. The Panel met for two years with its first regional meeting taking place in South Africa during 1997. The ISS was asked by the United Nations Disarmament Affairs Division to facilitate an NGO submission to this Panel during its meetings in Pretoria.

The recommendations of the Panel of Experts were presented to the General Assembly of the United Nations and accepted. A continuation Panel was established and it made further recommendations at the end of 1999. The Panel concluded that there had been an excessive and destabilising accumulation of small arms and light weapons in many parts of the world and that this was harmful to global human security and had to be reduced and stopped. The Panel demonstrated that illicit small arms had three sources:

  1. the irresponsible management of arms by legal possessors including the state,
  2. the irresponsible transfer of small arms without safeguards between countries, and
  3. the excessive amount of illicit arms that were circulating worldwide as a result of the Cold War.

The Panel of Experts called for an immediate United Nations Global Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms In All Its Aspects - a wording carefully chosen to make sure that a full discussion of the problem takes place. In parallel to this call, the United Nations was also called upon to look at the way in which firearms in general should be regulated to improve controls and strengthen enforcement. The latter debate has been taking place in Vienna since late 1998 during the negotiations about the new international protocol that is referred to above.

These two international initiatives, taken together, have resulted in a comprehensive revision of the ways in which governments manage firearms in their countries – both those in State and in civilian possession - and of the ways in which illicit transfers and proliferation can be reduced and stopped. The Vienna Firearms Protocol will be concluded towards the end of 2000 whilst the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Arms in All its Aspects will take place by July 2001, probably in Geneva.

The UN started its preparations for the Conference by holding a First Preparatory Meeting during January this year to prepare the agenda for discussion. A Second Preparatory Meeting will be held during January 2001. Mozambique was chosen as chair of the Preparatory Meetings, a first for Africa and for Southern Africa in particular. This is of importance since Mozambique is also the present Chair of SADC.

In preparation for the UN 2001 Conference, all regions are preparing position papers and policies. The most advanced region is the North and South American region which, under the leadership of the Organisation of American States (OAS), has already drafted and signed a Convention to Stop Illicit Arms. Countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa, are also hosting meetings and preparing for the 2001 event. The OAU has taken on the responsibility for developing an African position (see below).

In addition to the above initiatives, the Security Council of the United Nations held its first ever meeting to discuss the importance of small arms control during October of 1999. At that meeting, a call was made for the banning of all civilian possession of semiautomatic and automatic firearms.

2.2 Developments on the African continent

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU)

During November this year an OAU Ministerial Meeting on Small Arms and Illicit Trafficking will take place in Bamako, Mali. Extensive preparations for this meeting have already taken place in many African countries. During May 2000, a meeting of experts from all African states was held in Addis Ababa to prepare a working document for the Ministerial Meeting in Mali. A second meeting also took place in Addis Ababa in June 2000. South Africa participated fully in all these meetings and debates. The May 2000 meeting of government experts in Addis Ababa produced a set of recommendations that will be placed before the Ministerial Meeting in Mali for approval. These documents were submitted to the OAU Summit in Togo. They have been approved by the summit as the working documents for the Ministerial meeting in Mali. The main elements of the recommendations produced by the meeting of experts in Addis Ababa are:

We respectfully submit that members of the Portfolio Committee ought to bear in mind the recommendations that will be placed before the OAU Ministerial Meeting in November when they consider the Firearms Control Bill.

2.3 Initiatives in the SADC Region

At the August 1999 SADC Summit, SADC mandated the creation of a Small Arms Working Group of which South Africa is member. The working group, which consists of representatives from a number of Southern African countries, met in October 1999. It mandated the Legal Subcommittee of SARPCCO to create a Draft SADC Declaration, a Draft SADC Firearms and Ammunition Protocol, as well as a Draft Implementation Package that would guide member states on how to implement the provisions of the Protocol. This was done between January and March 2000 and the Drafts have been presented to the SADC Secretariat for submission to member states for their consideration.

During April 2000 the SADC Secretariat sent a Draft SADC Protocol for the Control of Firearms and Ammunition to all its member states so that it can be work-shopped for acceptance at SADC level during this year. The SADC Summit of August 2000 approved the work of the SADC Small Arms Working Group and asked for the presentation of the Protocol in 2001. The SADC Summit also elevated the Working Group to a full Committee and created a Small Arms Project in the SADC Secretariat.

The Draft SADC Protocol on Firearms and Ammunition (which already has the approval of all Police Chiefs and Commissioners of SADC countries) includes the following main elements:

We submit that, in considering the South African Firearms Control Bill, the Portfolio Committee should take into account the ongoing decisions, existing draft documents, and existing draft protocols which will more than likely be approved during the next six months. These international instruments – the Vienna Protocol, the SADC protocol, and the OAU Ministerial Recommendation on Small Arms – will be binding on member states and will oblige many countries to review their existing legislation, a process which is currently taking place in two other Southern African countries, namely Namibia and Malawi.

The Bill before the Portfolio Committee has the advantage for South Africa that it anticipates and already accommodates all the minimum requirements of these draft international protocols and instruments. We submit that the Portfolio Committee should use the opportunity to bring South African legislation on the control of firearms into line with international, continental and SADC trends and developments.

3. Positive aspects in the Bill that are in line with developments in Africa and internationally

(ISS docket research and the results of surveys on illegal firearms also support the following positive features of the Bill)

4. Problem areas in the Bill and proposals for improving it

On 12 June 2000, the ISS submitted a 23-page memorandum to the Portfolio Committee in which it identified those aspects of the Bill that it regarded as problematic and in which it provided recommendations on how the problem areas could be addressed. The June Memorandum related primarily to detailed legal drafting matters. The limited time that is available at the presentation to the Portfolio Committee on 23 August will prevent us from elaborating on the content of the June 12 Memorandum. However, we will attempt to answer any questions relating to that memorandum and to explain any aspects relating to the detailed legal and drafting issues.

Peter Gastrow
Cape Town Director: Institute for Security Studies