The First Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) will take place in Cancún, Mexico, from 24 – 27 August this year. This conference is the first of its kind, bringing together relevant stakeholders to discuss a common framework and setting the tone of how the treaty will be implemented.
The conference is especially important for African states – not only because of their contribution in having the treaty adopted, but also because Africa remains vulnerable to poorly regulated trade in conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons.
The ATT is the first multilateral treaty regulating the international trade in conventional arms. It opened for signature on 3 June 2013, and entered into force on 24 December 2014.
African states have been a driving force in negotiating the treaty. The African Union (AU) spearheaded a continental initiative that led to the continent’s common position, adopted in January 2013, where African states agreed to a set of shared objectives. It represents a landmark achievement for African states and shows their commitment to influence and shape the international security and arms control agenda.
Africa remains vulnerable to poorly regulated trade in conventional weapons Tweet this
While African states were at the forefront of campaigning for the treaty to be adopted, the process of ratifying the ATT on the continent has been comparatively slow.
Some experts believe this could be due to the bureaucratic ratification process, but also because countries have more pressing priorities – such as managing ongoing conflicts.
Of the 69 states that have ratified the treaty, only 10 are African – Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Interestingly, eight of the 10 African states parties are from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), while only Chad and South Africa are non-ECOWAS member states.
By comparison, most states from Latin America and the Caribbean have ratified the treaty, as well as all members of the European Union. It is hoped that this delay will prove temporary, and that Africa will reclaim its position on the frontline.
During a recent AU-hosted meeting of senior government officials in Addis Ababa attended by 40 African states and key organisations, it was made clear that the Cancún conference would provide an opportunity for states that have not acceded to the treaty to participate as observers. As one delegate put it, ‘…when someone speaks in a room [whether as an observer or as a full member], others have no choice but to listen’.
African states have been a driving force in negotiating the ATT, but only 10 have ratified it
Tweet this
Thus, in addition to the 10 African states parties with voting rights, all African states participating in the conference will be able to voice their concerns or suggestions. This could have a strong and positive influence on the discussions and ensure that African views and interests are fully taken on board.
During the preparatory process, two issues have, however, become unnecessarily politicised: the location of the secretariat, which must be established to assist states in implementing the treaty; and the individual who will head it. These two issues should always have remained technical, not political.
The candidate cities are Geneva, Port-of-Spain and Vienna. Regardless of where the secretariat is based, what matters is the quality of the infrastructure, accessibility and the services provided by the host country. As for the choice of the director, skills and expertise should be the main criteria. States from the Global South will only benefit if a technical approach is used. In this way, suitable individuals are given a chance to apply for positions in the secretariat.
To be fully effective, international instruments like the ATT need support from all states Tweet this
Given that the ATT is now in force, the next step is to promote its objectives and encourage states to actively participate in implementing the treaty. In Africa, as in other parts of the world, states will face a number of challenges in implementing the treaty: human and technical resources remain scarce and are subject to competing priorities. Fortunately, the treaty calls for cooperation among states and has also established an assistance mechanism.
One of the tasks of the secretariat will be to match offers with requests for assistance in both implementing the treaty and promoting international cooperation. At the national level, the treaty calls for mechanisms that control relevant trade activities. Various measures are therefore expected from states to efficiently control activities related to the import, export, brokering, transit and trans-shipment of conventional weapons.
A trust fund has been established under the United Nations to mobilise resources and improve assistance in support of the ATT. Since the fund started in 2013, 26 projects have already been funded at a cost of approximately US$4 million. The fund also aims to improve coordination, monitoring and increased sustainability.
African states should remain committed to fully implementing the ATT with the same vigour and determination shown in adopting the treaty. Until this happens, Africa will remain more vulnerable than any other continent to illicit trade in conventional weapons.
Credit link: https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/regulating-weapons-where-it-matters-most
The article was first published by The Institute for Security Studies (http://www.issafrica.org) and is republished with permission granted to www.oasesnews.com
One Steven Onowa in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, has been nabbed for the gruesome murder of his friend and employee.
*As he diverts staff salaries to his personal pocket*
If documents made available to Secrets Reporters from our sources is anything to go by, then the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor James Epoke, who had served as the returning officer in the fraudulent governorship elections in Akwa Ibom State may well be on his way to maximum prison for milking the university dry on daily basis through the diversion of staff salaries in the institution.
Sources who spoke with our medium had urged us to carry out an independent investigation on the VC and the institution.
Our Investigations indicates that, over seven hundred (700) staff of the institution that were employed in August 2010 by the former Vice Chancellor, Professor Bassey Asuquo, had their employments terminated by the incumbent Vice Chancellor, Professor James Epoke.
Though reasons for such action by the Registrar, Dr. Julia Omang was not given in a memo she signed which was obtained by Secrets Reporters, reports have it that, the vice chancellor who is a diehard tribalist, favours only indigenes of Cross River State who are from his Local Government Area, and had taken this action on grounds of ethnicity in a federal institution that ought to accommodate all and sundry.
It has been alleged that, University of Calabar, under the leadership of Professor Epoke, has ranked as one of the top corrupt institutions in Nigeria.
It is on well documented evidences that employees of the institution who the vice chancellor terminated their employments, are currently having their salaries running without collecting such monies.
While most of them are still at home without jobs, Professor Epoke diverts salaries meant for these employees into his private pockets.
Salaries from the federal government are still been paid into University of Calabar account without the monies been stopped by the institution since the staffers are no longer under employment with the university.
The accumulation of salaries of the 700 sacked staff of the institution that started receiving alerts since January 2011 and June, 2015 runs into billions of naira.
The pension Fund Administrator (PFA) had confirmed to Secrets Reporters that salaries of the sacked staff were still ongoing, while remittance is sent to PENCOM.
According to an official in PFA, the remittance is a percentage of one’s monthly income. So, those whose salaries were still running were entitled to this.
The questions on the lips of the sacked workers is when are they ever going to be paid for the months they worked for, before being sacked, as monthly alerts pours into their phones.
Some are worried that University of Calabar through the Bursar and the Vice Chancellor, continue to commit fraud through the use of the sacked workers data and go unchecked in a government that is currently fighting corruption.
There are strong indications that the five year tenure of the Vice Chancellor which will come to a close in November 2015, will be investigated by the anti-graft agencies, as we continue in our investigations on the Vice Chancellor to uncover the fraud in his administration of the university.
Efforts to speak with the University Public Relations Officer on this issue were unsuccessful as his phone contact was unreachable.
By Eneh John
“Our ability to return the Chibok girls is very limited. Well, after the abduction for some months it was clear that substantial group of girls were together. It was also clear that they were by no means all of them. It might be a group of 50 or 80; it’s very hard to tell. It presented a terrible dilemma to everybody, attempting to rescue substantial group of girls has two obvious problems; the risk to the attackers and to the girls.”
Futhermore, he said “It was possible that Boko Haram would have killed those girls. And I am not sure whether the military capacity existed for the rescue of these girls. So even though it was possible to say where some of the girls might have been, they were beyond rescue in practical terms. I think the only way for the return of the girls in my personal opinion is through the defeat of Boko Haram.”
He suggested the Nigerian government shouldn't rely solely on a military approach to conquer Boko Haram but also focus on economic measures as Nigeria is blighted with poverty and massive unemployment especially in the north-eastern part of the country.
“I don’t think we will advocate talking to people that abduct innocent civilians and cut peoples throat on video and show it to the rest of the world. But what we could be talking about is disarmament and rehabilitation process for those who are willing to put down their weapons,” he added.
Bobbi will be buried in Westfield, New Jersey with her late mother.
A source exclusively tells RadarOnline: "Whitney's headstone now has a circular brick border garden, and two rosary necklaces have been added. A new sign spelling out 'Love' has also been placed to the back left of the stone".
A source tells the site: "The graves around Whitney are occupied. Bobbi Kristina's remains could be placed atop Whitney's coffin, with mother and daughter together into eternity".
Bobbi, 21, has been on life support and fighting for her life since January 31, 2015 when she was found face-down in the bathtub unresponsive by her husband, Nick Gordon, in the bathroom of their home in Roswell, Georgia.
She was only just last week moved into a hospice where she would reportedly live out her last days.
Six suicide bombers detonated themselves around the garage during the suicide bombing attacks on Zabamari Muna near Maiduguri, the Borno State capital in Nigeria’s troubled North-East, the Nigerian military has said. Over a hundred people reportedly died during the attacks launched by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Thursday and Friday.
The military in its first official comment on the attacks admitted that scores of people were killed during the attacks and that “a soldier also died.”
“A jeep full of Improvised Explosives Devises was among the weapons recovered by troops conducting Cordon and Search Operations after suicide bombing attacks on Zabamari Muna near Maiduguri,” Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said in a statement.
“The jeep along with 2 Hilux vehicles being used by terrorists were destroyed in the course of pursuit and encounter with a group of terrorists trying to escape after simultaneous attacks on targets in the communities,” Olukolade stated.
“Military Explosives Ordinance experts backed by Police Bomb Disposal Units are continuing with vigorous search for any bombs that might have been hidden or left unexploded in the area,” he added.
The Defence Spokesman said that “meanwhile, all other offensive operations of counterterrorist campaign against terrorists continuing in various fronts. Additional deployment of men and equipment to enhance the scope of the mission both within the country and at borders are also continuing
There are many arguments for the existence of God – Anselm’s ontological argument, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the moral argument and the “immediate experience of God” argument. But if you don’t already believe, these arguments won’t convince you. They are post-hoc constructions to shore up existing beliefs.
The counter-arguments say that religion is a bad but entrenched idea. Religions peddle ugly doctrines that have ugly consequences. These so-called “holy books” variously demand the execution of “witches”, support slavery, endorse mass killing of infidels and heretics, waging of war, condemn homosexuality and denigrate women.
Religions promote division and inequality. They have in-groups (“chosen people”) and out-groups.
Enter Freud
The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, said that religion is a collective neurosis shared by the masses to shore up civilisation. Religion has its roots in infantile helplessness and the longing for a strong father. Neurosis and religion have universal common roots in human nature and cognition.
Freud believed that there was a developmental progression over the course of history – from animistic and magical, to religious, and then to scientific explanations – in the way in which people perceive and explain the universe.
Each explanation becomes progressively less omnipotent and egocentric. It ends with the scientific view that we are mortal, finite, small in a vast universe, and helpless against the forces of nature.
Enter fundamentalism
Who falls prey to fundamentalist messages? I have developed an algorithm:
Fundamentalism = fear + magical thinking + social and political forces that create psychological vulnerability, rage, hate, envy, alienation and marginalisation + cognitive narrowing (for example, indoctrination).
As a result, the disenfranchised, embattled, denigrated and rejected, deprived and needy, traumatised and dispossessed, envious, hateful and rageful members of society are all fair game for the message of fundamentalist religious and politico-religious ideologies.
Membership of a fundamentalist group reverses these intolerable feelings. Fundamentalist ideology bolsters group self-confidence. Fundamentalism turns out-groups into in-groups that empower and enrich its members. They are now no longer denigrated and alone, but exalted as a select and chosen few.
Fundamentalists become warriors with a simple message of salvation that is found in a naïve and literal interpretation of ancient, sacred texts. Gone is the hopelessness and uncertainty of life. The path is straight; the goals are clear. However, to partake, one must relinquish one’s “self” – one’s individuality and “mind” – in order to render blind obedience to the collective ideology.
Acts of fundamentalist terrorism must breach an almost insurmountable barrier – the prohibition against the taking of life. Yet, these heights have been scaled and breached repeatedly in the course of history.
In addition to underlying motivations like socioeconomic inequalities, ethnic struggles and nationalist movements, to commit atrocities requires fundamentalists to have undergone “a long process of caricaturing, degrading and dehumanising” their targets, in order to create a rift between themselves (in-group) and their intended victims (out-group).
Enemies cease to be fellow human beings. They become infidels.
Religion and suicide bombing
Suicide bombing, like genocide, is characterised by the perceived need for purification. The term “ethnic cleansing” carries this meaning, as did former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s call for a return to the values of the Islamic ancestors, to cleanse mankind of the West’s impure and corrupted values.
Those who must be cleansed are necessarily impure and indeed evil. The cause – to rid the world of this contamination – is sacred and sanctioned by God.
Suicide bombing is more prevalent in occupied nations, in which the occupied resist, yet succumb to the constant humiliations as a result of their abject subjugation.
Repeated humiliations spawn impotent rage, frustration and despair that demand expression. For some, it signals a wish to be dead rather than endure further humiliation. Suicide bombing disables the military might of the occupier. It is the ultimate defiance of the oppressor.
The profiles of suicide bombers are disparate. Some are recruited from among the homeless and poverty-stricken. Others are recruited by imams, at mosques and by social media; and from among the affluent and well-educated who live abroad. Some are young boys brainwashed in the madrassahs, or widows and bereaved sisters of deceased jihadists who wish to expel their rage and grief about their loss in retaliation against a hated enemy.
On deradicalisation
Deprogramming a bomb or a missile is possible, but can you deprogram a terrorist? Radicalisation into fundamentalist violence follows four stages – pre-radicalisation, self-identification, indoctrination and action.
Deradicalisation, the process of persuading extremists to abandon the use of violence, is not simply a reversal of the radicalisation process. Careful assessment of individuals to identify the unique set of context- and person- specific factors motivating their involvement is essential.
Many countries – such as Singapore, Indonesia, the UK and the Netherlands – have implemented deradicalisation programs with varying degrees of success. The Indonesian prison deradicalisation program has been a failure: of 600 undertaking the program, only 20 deradicalised.
But, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) feared military wing, the Black September Organisation, thought that radicalised members only “switched off” when the PLO gave them a:
… reason to live, rather than a reason to die.
The solution? They married them off.
Author: Professor of Psychology and Music at University of Sydney
credit link: https://theconversation.com/god-religion-and-fundamentalism-an-unholy-trinity-42326<img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/42326/count.gif" width="1" />
The article was originally published on The Conversation (www.conversation.com) and is republished with permission granted to www.oasesnews.com
According to the Anglican Bishop of Wusasa Diocese in Zaria, Kaduna State, Rt. Rev. Ali Buba-Lamido, corrupt public officials in the country should be sentenced to death.
Speaking on Saturday, he said the death penalty option is the only way to put public officers in Nigeria in check.
“If our leaders know that they would be prosecuted if found corrupt they would be on their toes to avoid corrupt practices.”
He also expressed confidence in the ability of the administration, saying he had no doubt that President Muhammdu Buhari would deliver.
On the security situation in the country, the bishop said it was bad for a country like Nigeria to have lost up to 11,000 people to Boko Haram.
“However, I am satisfied with the approach taken by the new administration to tackle the menace of Boko Haram,” he said.
