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Isbister, Roy. 2016 ‘Situation in Liberia and Legislation.’ Liberia and Compliance With The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), p.5. Monrovia: Liberia National Commission on Small Arms (LiNCSA). 21 August

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Situation in LIberia

(…) Since the end of the war in 2003, and especially with the presence of UNMIL and the existence of the UN arms embargo, Liberia has had very little reason or opportunity to import conventional arms. Membership in ECOWAS and the requirements of the ECOWAS Convention place additional controls on transfers of small arms, their ammunition and related materials. This is not to say that Liberia does not import any conventional arms at all, but rather that imports have been very limited and subject to restrictive and successive layers of control.

Currently there is no commercial manufacture of conventional arms in Liberia and the country has not had surplus or unwanted military equipment to sell. The embargo has also inhibited Liberia from operating as a point of transit for arms shipments, be it through Roberts International Airport (RIA) or the Freeport of Monrovia, though with the end of the arms embargo and both RIA and the Freeport having ambitions to increase their operations this may change in future. Little is known about whether Liberia has functioned as a home for arms brokers--limited communications capacities and transportation links would suggest this is unlikely--however the absence of controls on arms brokering and proximity to other fragile contexts mean that this should not be discounted.

Note that this analysis of Liberia's level of compliance with the ATT looks very much to the future. It is thus based on the understanding that the Firearms Act passed by the National Legislature will shortly become law following the signature of the President and that UNMIL has handed all security matters over to the Liberian Government and so will have no further jurisdiction over anything related to arms control or armaments, and proceeds on that basis.

Legislation

The first task of any State Party to the ATT is to ensure that all its attendant obligations are given expression in domestic law. Liberia is starting from an unusual position, given that responsibility for arms transfers has in effect fallen to UNMIL, such that there is currently very little in the way of national law to control international conventional arms transfers. The Firearms Act is definitely a useful start; it goes some distance towards filling this legislative gap. Usefully, although drafted before Liberia joined the ATT, The Firearms Act does anticipate Liberia's membership such that many of the provisions of the new law reflect the obligations of the ATT, for example with regard to the decision-making process a government must follow when deciding whether to export SALW.

The Firearms Act, however, applies both to a significantly narrower range of equipment and a significantly broader range of activities than the ATT.

Whereas the Firearms Act covers only SALW, their ammunition and related materials, the ATT covers a much broader range of conventional arms, from small arms ammunition up to aircraft carriers and combat aircraft. And while both the ATT and the Firearms Act regulate cross-border transfers (export, import, transit and brokering), the Firearms Act also regulates domestic SALW control, including inter alia SALW registration, possession and use, repair, dealing, marking, and destruction.

The nature of these differences also creates certain questions around the roles that different government ministries and agencies might play. For example, the respective roles of the Liberia National Police (LNP) and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) are likely to shift dependent on whether, for example, the issue is licensing of a firearm for personal use within Liberia or the licensing of surplus armored vehicles for export to a neighboring state.

It will therefore be necessary for Liberia to draft new law in order to be fully compliant with the ATT. This could be done by either amending the Firearms Act so that it covers all elements it is so far lacking, or drafting a new law, dealing solely with international conventional arms transfers.

Standard international practice is to separate domestic small arms control and international conventional arms transfer control into two separate Acts, as despite some overlaps these are in essence two quite separate issues, involving different challenges and different actors. While it would be possible to expand and adjust the Firearms Act, following detailed examination of this law, LiNCSA firmly believes that the preferred solution is to follow standard practice and create a distinct Act (named here as the Conventional Arms Transfers Act (CATA), for convenience). It should be noted, however, that much work on this point has already been done, as there is much in the Firearms Act that could be copied directly into a CATA.

In passing a CATA into law it would be necessary to make amendments in parallel to the Firearms Act, to avoid duplication and potential loopholes. But whichever path is chosen, it is our strongest recommendation that this does not lead to delays in the imminent passage of the Firearms Act as it currently exists, as delays run the risk of creating a situation where there is no legal basis within Liberia for small arms control management.

Moreover, while it is currently difficult to estimate how long it might take to pass a new law, there will inevitably be a need to quickly put in place a mechanism to ensure that in the interim the Government still has the means to regulate transfers of all conventional arms. LiNCSA recommends that until appropriate legislation is in place, Liberia should establish an Executive Order for a total ban on the export or import of any conventional arms not covered by the Firearms Act without the express authority of the President upon recommendation from the National Security Council.

ATT = Arms Trade Treaty
LiNCSA = Liberia National Commission on Small Arms
SALW = Small Arms and Light Weapons
UNMIL = United Nations Mission in Liberia

ID: Q14463

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