Latin American Parliament passes a legislation framework on arms

An exclusive article for the montlhy newsletter “En la mira – The Latin American Small Arms Watch.” Click here for subscriptions and for previous issues.

*Gustavo Colás

The Committee on Public Safety, Combating and Prevention of Drug Trafficking, Terrorism and Organized Crime of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), adopted unanimously at the meeting held last October 23rd in the Federal District of Mexico, the draft law framework on Firearms, Ammunition and Related Materials, which long had been discussed in the body.

The particularities that defined the process of formulating the draft law, the nature of its content, the development it underwent even before its approval and the broad consensus reached among the parliamentarians of the region, certainly express the degree of importance attached to the need to work towards the harmonization of laws in pursuit of greater control over the circulation of weapons.

The Latin American Parliament was formed in 1964 anticipating a regional consolidation that takes place today, it was created as an institution representing all political tendencies existing in the legislative bodies of the countries in the region. At present the Parlatino includes the Netherlands Antilles, Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The process of formulation and adoption of the Framework Law of Arms of the Latin American Parliament is definitely an outstanding example of the joint efforts of parliamentarians, civil society organizations, experts and international agencies, working together with the goal of designing an appropriate normative tool to meet the challenges that the proliferation and easy availability of weapons impose on Latin American society.

The Parlatino incorporates to its agenda of activities the issue of firearms at the meeting held in Buenos Aires on April 7, 2006. On that occasion experts of Viva Rio, the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons and SweFor (Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation) were specially invited to discuss the issue.

After the presentations by experts and participating parliamentarians, the Commission of the Latin American Parliament resolved to proceed to draft a legislation framework on small arms and ammunition control, with the support of Viva Rio. This NGO proposed to expand the framework of collaboration and required monitoring, adding experts from the Latin American Coalition for the Prevention of Armed Violence (Clave) and the Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

After an extensive and participatory process of elaboration, a draft legislation framework was presented at the meeting of the Latin American Parliament, held in Montevideo in November 2006. The draft was subsequently given a deeper treatment and further analysis at the meetings in Bogota on 22nd and 23rd October 2007 and Mexico on October 23 this year, when it was finally approved. The debate sparked by the initiative, and the broad framework of discussion that ensued, provides a clear example of how the process of elaboration and discussion of new law can contribute to   generating awareness and debate. 

Indeed, the contribution of legislative tools on these issues is often underestimated, since such issues are often posed as culturally based or as circumscribed to the ambit of illegality, where the effects of laws are certainly marginal.

Views of that nature do not take into account that beyond the regulatory outcome, the process leading towards the enactment of the framework law provides an opportunity for incorporating the topic on the political parliamentary agenda, it widens the space of public discussion, raises the awareness of these issues and reinforces and articulates the valuable work carried out in this area by civil society.

The process of constitution of the Legislation Framework is a clear example in this respect. Even before approval, the project was an important reference and model for analyzing the current regulatory and legal reform proposals being discussed in the various countries of the region. Thus, it is worth mentioning that its structure provided a role model for a bill currently at parliamentary state in the Senate of the Argentine Republic, it has been discussed at the Comité de Coordinación de Políticas de Armas de Fuego (Committee of Coordination of Firearms Policies) created through the disarmament law enacted a couple of years ago in that country. There are also elements of this draft law in the initiative submitted by Panama government to the National Assembly this year, and subject to intense debate.

The draft framework law was presented at the Conference of Parliamentarians and Civil Society Organizations of Central America and Caribbean held in Santo Domingo between 20 and 21 November 2006. It was also subject of analysis in the ambit of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference “Seguridad Publica y Armas Pequeñas y Ligeras” ("Public Security and Small Arms and Light Weapons"), held in Panama City exactly a year ago. It assembled the presidents and key members of the public security committees of most of the parliaments of Latin America.

The initiative was also reported in an International Workshop on Transfer, Detention and Use of Firearms Legislation which took place in Haiti between March 16 and March 18, 2008. More recently in July this year, within the framework of the activities of the UNPoA (United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects) developed in New York, a specific meeting was held to introduce the draft framework law, as in the International Forum "Towards a New Legislation of Arms", held in the Uruguayan Parliament between 18 and 19 September.

The review of this activity allows us to highlight two issues: On the one hand, a well-conceptualized process of legislative development may contribute towards opening debate and raising awareness of these issues, on the other hand, there is the great regional impact of having a legislative tool of such importance to serve as frame of reference to harmonize legislation on weapons and ammunition in the region.

The draft law adopted by the Parlatino is based on the principles of prohibition, restriction and justification. These principles presuppose that the purchase of firearms and freedom to conduct any firearms-related activities will require a prior authorization by state, which will be granted based on restrictive criteria, and on justification of the need to the use such dangerous instruments. All authorizations will be granted for a fixed period of time and a series of norms that are destined to disable weapons when the period expires. It also provides mechanisms for a dynamic reduction of surpluses and campaigns for voluntary hand-in, in line with the objective of total reduction of weapons stocks.

After defining the materials submitted to control, the framework law gives clear guidelines for the marking of weapons and ammunition, in this last aspect, assumes a cutting-edge role on an issue currently under discussion in the international agenda.

Hence all the justifications claimed by individuals or private security companies that intend to operate with weapons will be completely regulated. This will establish a common standard, regardless of the activity to be developed, which will be supplemented with specific requirements for certain activities. Among other obligations, norms require that potential purchasers have no criminal record and history of family violence.

The framework law further regulates all possible activities being developed with weapons: the fabrication, storage, transportation, weapons transfer, domestic trade, weapons repair, ammunition reload, hunting events, shooting clubs, firing instruction, weapons possession (that includes the practice of shooting and hunting), carrying, firearms collection and private security with weapons.

For the purpose of realizing this set of obligations the Framework legislation considers the creation of a centralized national control body. This body would be part of public safety, but remain outside the structure of armed forces, police and security, because they, despite their own specificities, are also subject to the established control system. It also provides for a comprehensive procedure for parliamentary control of the performance of the system and the implication of the use of weapons and assessing their impact on society.

Finally, the Law Framework proposes a set of administrative and even criminal penalties for the most serious offenses. In addition, it suggests amendments to related laws to ensure the operability of the system.

To sum up, the parliamentarians assembled in Mexico who passed the Law Framework stressed the need to weaken the impact that guns cause in Latin America and stated the need to count on harmonic laws so as to prevent the porosity of borders from allowing circumventions made possible by flexible legislation and lax controls in neighboring areas.

The challenge is to implement this model of legal alignment provided by the Legislation Framework of the Latin American Parliament into national law. It is therefore essential that the efforts of civil society organizations, experts and areas of government are called on to achieve the common aim of building a safer place, with fewer weapons and less violence.

* Gustavo Colás is a Parliamentary adviser of Argentina