On 09-12 December 2019, Control Arms, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence of Namibia and with funding support from the ATT Voluntary Trust Fund, organised a four-days training on the Arms Trade Treaty in Windhoek, Namibia. This meeting is part of a longer term project titled the ATT Academy in Southern Africa, which aims to provide in-dept training and support to thirty-five government and civil society representatives from Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia participated.

This first session focused on the core articles of the ATT emphasizing, in particular, the Treaty’s scope and general implementation provisions as well as the importance of Articles 8, 9 and 11 which refer to the responsibilities of importing and transit and transhipment states to prevent illicit arms transfers and diversion. This meeting also stressed the importance of complementarity between the ATT and other international and regional instruments that address security, human rights and development challenges including the Sustainable Development Agenda. Experts’ presentations, discussion groups and hypothetical exercises encouraged participants to ask questions and relate ATT obligations to their national context. The workshop also identified links between small arms proliferation, the ATT and wildlife poaching, a serious problem in many Southern African countries, including Namibia.