DYB2011-Part-II-web

Regional disarmament
Furthermore, in order to increase awareness-raising and public education
on the negative impact of the proliferation of SALW, a series of capacitybuilding
workshops for the media were organized in Guinea from 23 to
30 July, in Liberia from 28 August to 2 September and in Côte d’Ivoire from
22 to 25 November.
Within the framework of implementing the provisions of articles 18 and
19 of the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their
Ammunition and Other Related Materials, 25 governmental experts adopted,
during their meeting from 6 to 8 December in Bamako, Mali, standards and
unique codes to be used by each ECOWAS member State for the marking of
SALW.
For the acquisition of any new SALW, it was agreed that classical and
security markings were to be applied in accordance with the provisions of
article 18. Classical markings included, in particular, the following:
• ECOWAS logo;
• Serial number;
• Identification of the manufacturer;
• Identification of the country of manufacture;
• Year of manufacture;
• Identification code ISO 3166-1 (or Alpha-2) of the importing State;
• Year of import; and
• Identification of the institution that is supposed to use the weapons.
For weapons already in current stocks, markings should show at a
minimum and in the proposed order, the following elements:
• ECOWAS logo;
• ISO 3166-1 (or Alpha-2) country identifying code;
• Identification of the institution that is supposed to use the weapon; and
• Serial number.
For locally manufactured weapons, marking is to be done in strict
compliance with the provisions of article 18 of the ECOWAS Convention
when they are industrially produced. For artisanal weapons, markings must at
least comprise ISO 3166-1 (or Alpha-2) country identification code, and the
identification of the manufacturer and the serial number.
The ECOWAS Commission also participated in the discussions held
during the two sessions of the United Nations Preparatory Committee on the
25 Available from http://www.ecosap.ecowas.int/index.php?option=com_jotloader&section=
files&task=download&cid=3_17714a46188cf52f23f2b926a6a857da&Itemid=84&lang=en
(accessed 13 June 2012).
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