The Issue of Disarmament in Zambia

Over the years, major conflicts between countries have led to the proliferation of deadly weapons of all kind, chemical and biological, when parties involved in the conflict decide to resort to the usage of arms, thereby starting an arms race. In Africa, general and complete disarmament is necessary in order to maintain peace and stability within the continent, and thereafter promoting development among the various African states.

In recent years, Africa has been successful in reducing the number of weapons in various countries. However, its success is hindered by the illicit exportation of arms from nations such as United States, Russia and China into Africa. This caused social instability as the weapons and tools which spread across Africa are possessed by terrorist organisations and government forces with ill-intentions. As such, disarmament is to be enforced. Zambia believes that disarmament is a precondition of development in the region. With greater regional peace and stability, African states would be able to witness greater economic growth. Besides disarmament, there are also many other factors which contribute to the stagnation of development in Africa, including little education opportunities as well as social inequalities. Hence, these issues should be tackled in order to promote economic growth within the region. Zambia has always been a strong and committed advocate of general and complete disarmament, not only in Africa but also on global platforms.

Moreover, Zambia is a strong supporter of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT) and hereby calls upon South Sudan to ratify this treaty in light of support disarmament in Africa. Zambia has also joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention in 2001 and 2008 respectively. It can be seen that Zambia’s stance on disarmament is clear and firm. On the topic of development in Africa, Zambia welcomes international fundings and support to aid African states progress economically. One aspect which Zambia believes require more attention is education. Education allows the people in Africa to acquire new skills and knowledge, thereby allowing them to be employed and able to play a part in driving their respective countries’ economies. This delegate of Zambia hopes to see fruitful debate by the council which can lead to the implementation of functional long and short term solutions.

Firstly, more regulations have to be put in place to curb the problem of illegal exportation of arms into Africa. Zambia is willing to contribute necessary expertise and funding, if necessary, to look into the prospect of setting up an organisation to target this issue of illicit entering of arms into the continent. Secondly, Zambia encourages all African states to be transparent in terms of arms production. A database can also be potentially set up to monitor the production of weapons by each African country and encourage the sharing of intelligence on arms production which will be safeguarded by the African Union. Apart from these two solutions, Zambia is also open to other effective solutions.