Regional Center on Small Arms and Light Weapons

Seychelles

Achievements by Member States to the Nairobi Declaration.

By the signing of the Second Ministerial Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa on 21st April 2004,the Republic of Seychelles became the 11th Member State Signatory to the Nairobi Declaration. In near future, a National Focal Point will be established and the Coordinator appointed.

Official Launch of Seychelles National Focal Point on Small Arms & Light Weapons and Workshop on its Structure, Organization and Daily Management
International Conference Centre, Victoria, Seychelles
17th - 19th October 2006

Major achievements to date

From 20 th to 21 st April 2004 , a delegation led by Honorable Jérémie Bonnelame, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Sychelles attended in Nairobi the Second Ministerial Review Conference

Immediately after the signing of the Nairobi Protocol, the Government of the Republic of Seychelles appointed a National Focal Point on Small Arms and Light Weapons in accordance with the Coordinated Agenda for Action of the Nairobi Declaration

Seychelles NFP attended all consultative meetings on small arms and light weapons at regional, continental and inter national levels

Seychelles Delegation attending the Experts Meeting on Small Arms and Light Weapons held at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, on 16th to 20th May 2005.

Launch of Seychelles National Focal Point, NFP, and Workshop on its Structure, Organization and Daily Management

The Seychelles NFP was launched on the 17th of October, 2006 under the auspices of RECSA at Mahe, Seychelles. This was immediately followed by a workshop on structure, organization and Daily Management set up, of the launched NFP.

Participants were in consensus that as a result of the uniqueness of the Seychelles situation, there is a range of issues that need to be finalized before the final set of functions and tasks can be drawn up.

It was therefore recommended in cognizance of this, that:

Because of the size of the Seychelles landmass, it is believed that Seychelles will need district task forces for the implementation of the Nairobi Protocol and subsequent NAP, and that this can be handled at national level.
The outer islands must be included. Detailed research needs to be done to determine how these islands should be monitored and extra capacity to the island managers.
It was recommended that there should be control of explosives used by the fishing industry.
There should be added capacity building to all stakeholders.
It was recommended that there should be the possibility of using of Assumption Island.
The stockpile management of all government owned SALW and also private security companies.

The workshop participants also captured the essence of NFPs in implementing the Nairobi Declaration, Nairobi Protocol, other protocols and programs of action and declarations pertaining to small arms and light weapons. This is basically at the national level. This was to be extended also to Seychelles as an additional inception of a NFP.

Coordination activities of the implementation of all protocols were emphasized as an obligation of NFPs and one that Seychelles should in turn recognize. This includes coordinated activities related to small arms with the sub-regional, regional and international organizations. This also includes facilitation of the exchange and dissemination of information.

Seychelles