MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

MISSING PIECES
• programmes focused on community economic and social development,
with broad participation in creating jobs, housing, recreation opportunities,
and schooling;
• approaches to improve the capacity to resolve conflict non-violently,
including conflict management training and direct inter-group peacemaking,
taking note of traditional processes;
• policies to strengthen governance by establishing community policing;
reforming and training the police; and working towards an honest,
independent judiciary; and
• broad efforts to improve public access to government, increase public
participation in government, and end the marginalisation of some
groups and women.
INTERNATIONAL PROCESSES
RELEVANCE TO THE UN PROGRAMME OF ACTION
The word ‘demand’ is only mentioned once in the PoA. In paragraph 7 of the
Preamble, states note their concern for the ‘close link between terrorism,
organised crime, trafficking in drugs and precious minerals and the illicit
trade in small arms and light weapons’, and stress ‘the urgency of international
efforts and co-operation aimed at combating this trade simultaneously
from both a supply and demand perspective’ [emphasis added]. 4
Indirect references to a demand perspective are nevertheless found in
a number of other places in the PoA. For example, the document acknowledges
concern for the ‘implications that poverty and underdevelopment
may have for the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons’; while many
areas in the PoA imply the need to understand and address demand, including
the focus on disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration of excombatants;
the emphasis on the special needs of children; the recognition
of the need to ‘promote dialogue and a culture of peace by encouraging . . .
education and public awareness programmes’; the recognition of the need
to make ‘greater efforts to address problems related to human and sustainable
development’; and the references to elements for which the shorthand
is ‘security sector reform’.
At the global policy level, increasing attention has been given to linkages
between small arms and development (including poverty reduction strategies),
and justice and security sector reform. This is encouraging as both
issues in fact address key demand factors. The March 2005 decision by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development
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