MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

ANNEX 7
ANNEX 7 NATIONAL COORDINATING AGENCIES
ON SMALL ARMS 1
The spread and misuse of firearms is a problem that cannot be solved through
the efforts of government departments, law enforcement agencies or civil
society groups working on their own. The prevention of gun violence at a
national level requires co-operation and co-ordination between all those
who are affected by the problem or who are responsible for tackling it.
The PoA calls on governments ‘[T]o establish, or designate as appropriate,
national coordination agencies or bodies and institutional infrastructure
responsible for policy guidance, research and monitoring of efforts to prevent,
combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons
in all its aspects’. A number of states have implemented this commitment
through various arrangements, ranging from relatively informal arrangements
that rely on the existing resources of the relevant department, to
the more formal National Focal Points (NFPs), to the establishment of
National Commissions on small arms, which involves the creation of a new
body with additional resources. 2
National Commissions undertake various activities from basic policy
coordination between government departments responsible for small arms
action, to the development of National Action Plans (NAPs) based on a
comprehensive assessment or ‘mapping’ of the small arms problem. In
Sri Lanka for instance, one of the main tasks of the National Commission
is to coordinate the development and implementation of a National Strategy
on small arms in Sri Lanka. This has involved conducting a pilot
survey on small arms and community safety in Hambanthota District, in
the south of Sri Lanka, with a view to building on the experience to plan
and conduct a nation-wide survey. In Croatia, the National Commission
for Arms and Ammunition is responsible for coordinating and directing
the activities related to arms and ammunition and for drafting the national
strategy for small arms and light weapons control. The Commission consists
of representatives from all relevant ministries with a role in small arms
and light weapons control.
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