ABSTRACT
A major concern of the member states of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) is the illegal trafficking of firearms and explosives that is often ancillary to the drug trade. After a series of seminars in 1993 and 1994, a group of experts from the member states was convened in May 1996 to draw up model regulations for the control of weapons and explosives smuggling in the western hemisphere, with particular attention to linkages to drug trafficking. In November 1997, the OAS concluded an Inter-American Convention Against the Manufacture and Illicit Trafficking of Firearms, Munitions, Explosives and Related Materials. This convention sets out broad principles to prevent the illegal movement of firearms and explosives, including acceptance by the signatories to the Convention to agree to a system of import, export and trans-shipment controls.
