Regional Center on Small Arms and Light Weapons

Eritrea

	Achievements by Member States to the Nairobi Declaration.

	Since the signing of the Nairobi Declaration, the Government of Eritrea appointed the National Focal Point and designated its Coordinator in June 2004.The Government has shown its commitment to implementing the Nairobi Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol in promising to launch the Eritrea National Focal Point in the near future. Major achievement include: Effective public education and awareness programme in the fight against the illicit small arms, crime and terrorism.

	Major achievements to date From 20 th to 21 st April 2004 , a delegation from the State of Eritrea, led by Honorable Ali Said Abdella , Minister for Foreign Affairs, attended the Second Ministerial Review Conference; Eritrea NFP participated actively to all consultative forums on small arms and light weapons at regional, continental and international levels

	Official launch of Eritrea NFP The official launch of Eritrea NFP was held in Asmara on 9 th August 2005 at Intercontinental Hotel, Asmara in presence of more than 60 invitees including Members of Eritrea NFP, Senior Military Officers, Senior Police Officers, Members of Diplomatic Corps accredited to Eritrea, Representatives from Religious organizations, Civil society as well as the Media. The Key note address was delivered by Ambassador Girmay on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Official launch of Eritrea NFP was widely covered by both national print and electronic Media Houses.


	View of Participants at the official Launch of Eritrea NFP on SALW held in Asmara on August 9th 2005.

	The official launch was followed by a working session during two presentations on “the Overview of Eritrea 's commitments to regional and international arms control instruments ” and the “ Progress in the development / Revision of legislation on firearms in Eritrea ” were made by Representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, respectively. The two presentations were followed by viewing two documentaries on Eritrea destruction of firearms carried out in June 2001 and April 2002; in March 2003 and May 2005, and the RECSA documentary. This was followed by comments facilitated by RECSA and Eritrea NFP. RECSA representative formally requested the Eritrea NFP Coordinator to liaise with the relevant Department to avail the breakdown of thousands of arms which the Government of Eritrea destroyed after her liberation war against Ethiopia for records purposes.


	H.E. Mohammad Ali Omaro, Ambassador of the Republic of the State of Eritrea to Kenya, signing the 3rd Ministerial Declaration, in June 2005, Nairobi

	On 10 th and 11 th August 2005, the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA) in conjunction with Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC) and SaferAfrica, facilitated a workshop on Workshop on structure, organization and daily management of Eritrea NFP, which was held at Intercontinental Hotel, Asmara. The workshop was attended by 35 participants including members of Eritrea NFP, Senior Military Officers, Senior Police Officers and Representatives from civil society organizations. The objectives of the workshop were to : raise awareness on Eritrea's international and regional small arms commitments; establish an NFP and generate ideas for its operationalization in Eritrea and raise awareness about the problem of small arms and light weapons in Eritrea . After the two days workshop, participants agreed on the following: it is very important that the newly elected members of the Eritrea NFP have their first meeting within 3 months; the new members that did not attend the workshop need to be capacitated on SALW issues; the Coordinator to arrange with RECSA for additional capacity building on all small arms aspects; and if possible, the video on the destruction of firearms in Eritrea needs to be edited with sound and more precise statistics on small arms and light weapons being added

	RECSA spearheads and carries out Operational and Capacity Building Activities in Eritrea namely: The Training of Trainers (TOT) for the Law Enforcement Workshop on Small Arms and Light Weapons and Development of Country Specific Program in Eritrea December 12th – 14th 2006 Intercontinental Asmara, Eritrea In his speech officiating the operational and capacity building workshop, the Executive Secretary of RECSA, H.E. Mr Francis K. Sang, CBS, expressed his gratitude to the Government of the State of Eritrea for hosting the Workshops and facilitating its success through its NFP. He particularly highlighted that the State of Eritrea was among the first member states signatory to the Nairobi Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol to sign its instrument of ratification on the 4th of May 2005 and deposited the same at the SECRETARIAT on the 11th of May 2005. He further emphasized that the importance of the next phase of implementation of the Nairobi Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol is the development of a NAP which is the most important step in dealing with the problem of illicit small arms and light weapons because the plan provides a road-map that identifies and conceptualizes the problem peculiar to the Nation. The overall purpose of the Training activities was to equip senior management and practitioners with the necessary skills to implement the Nairobi Declaration, the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of SALW in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa and other relevant regional and international instruments as part of a multi-disciplinary task. The training modules were divided into six modules namely; Nature of the problem and international and regional solutions proposed. Applicable international, Regional and Sub-regional protocols, Action programmes and Agreements. Regional and Sub-regional co-operation mechanisms. Arms management. National Action Plan. Joint Operations and cross border operations. These modules consolidated the sequential depth of the general operational and capacity building activity. These modules consolidated the sequential depth of the general operational and capacity building activity. These modules consolidated the sequential depth of the general operational and capacity building activity.