Proliferation of small arms and light weapons is a critical humanitarian, development and governance challenge; governments need to address the issue in a united and holistic approach. This paper, published by SaferAfrica and Saferworld, summarises their audit of arms control legislation in Tanzania and its conformity to regional and international arms control agreements. While Tanzania’s current legislation conforms to some regional and international requirements, serious fundamental regulatory gaps that hamper effective arms control need to be addressed. This report is intended to assist lawmakers and other actors in developing new legislation which will address these gaps.
In 2000, the Nairobi Declaration on the Problem of the Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa was signed by a number of area countries. Since then, implementation of the Declaration, while slower than desired, has begun to develop momentum.
This audit of SALW legislation, undertaken in 2004, is one of a series conducted in several Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa countries. It measures legislative conformity to regional and international arms control agreements and is intended to assist in planning future legislation. Audited countries include Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The primary national small arms control legislation in Tanzania is the Arms and Ammunition Act of 1991. While the Act categorises and defines different classes of arms, it does not define light weapons separately in order to enable prohibition of their possession and use by civilians. Other findings include:
- The requirement of a license is the only regulation of civilian possession and use. Records of civilian possession and use are required.
- Licenses are required for import/export and transit licenses for import to contiguous states. Arms imported solely for sales purposes must be registered as such.
- Small arms can only be manufactured at arsenals establishing by the government. A permit is required to trade in arms; records must be kept on arms deposited in and withdrawn from private warehouses.
- The police have the power to search for and seize small arms.
- There are no controls of state-owned small arms, brokering or for enforcement of arms embargoes.
- Penalties for contravention of the Act are imprisonment for up to six years or fines.
In order to address the critical gaps in its current legislation, Tanzania should institute the following requirements in future legislation:
- a separate light weapons definition and prohibition of civilian possession/use of all light weapons and automatic/semi-automatic rifles and machine guns;
- civilian competency testing, restrictions on numbers of arms a citizen may own and centralised civilian-owned arms registration;
- specific information on import/export licenses, end-user certificates, arms marking upon import and import/export and transit record keeping;
- arms marking upon manufacture. Record keeping for both manufacture and trade;
- provisions for disposal/destruction and re-activation of de-activated; and
- controls for state-owned arms, brokering and enforcement of arms embargoes.
