The conference was held within the framework of the fight against the illicit proliferation of weapons and the search for peace and security in West Africa,
Through its own actions, ECOWAS seeks to strengthen its regional arms control agreements and pursue relentless deployment of technical and financial resources in support of the arms control policy arrangements in the region.
As regional economic community on the African continent, ECOWAS has undertaken multiple independent but complementary arms control initiatives over the years.
The regional body has been working on such arms issues ranging from the Declaration of the Moratorium on Import, Export and Manufacture of Arms to the current legally binding ECOWAS Convention on SALW, Ammunition and Other Related Materials.
“The objective of this meeting is to bring to the ECOWAS region ongoing global conversations on disarmament as well as arms control issues. More specifically, these annual seminar series will also generate wide spectrum of discussions dwelling on diverse thematic issues, with experts’ analysis in panel sessions, drawn globally to address the key issues. These would add to the understanding of the member states of these obligations and would provide them the opportunities for further collaborations and on the right stead to deliver on their commitments.”
Two interventions marked the opening ceremony. UNIDIR Director Robin Geiss was represented by UNIDIR Deputy Director Cecile Aptel, who recalled UNIDIR's continued commitment to work with ECOWAS with the small arms division.
She also indicated that significant efforts had been made in disarmament. “However, it remains important to increase actions across the Region for arms control,” she said, thanking ECOWAS for the important regional initiative.
Representing the President of ECOWAS, H.E. Omar Aliou Touray, Dr Abdel Musa Fatau, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), thanked UNIDIR for the research actions in the field of disarmament and recalled the importance of the meeting.
The expected outcomes envisaged to form the focus of the annual seminar series will include deepening assessments of these regional, continental, and global arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation regimes. As such, based on annual priorities (to be defined jointly by ECOWAS and UNIDIR), issues of obligations and commitments will be on the discussion table.
