Port-au-Prince, Haiti-- On March 17th, Parliamentary Forum member Sen. Sonia Escudero (Argentina) called on Haitian MPs to work towards strengthening Haitian laws on small arms control at a seminar organized by NGOs CERESS (Centre d’études et de Recherches en Sciences Sociales et Penales) and SweFOR (Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation).

Presentations and discussions at the seminar centered on the model weapons law recently developed by the Latin American Parliament. Experts included Orlidy Inoa, Asociate Researcher for the Caribbean Institute for the Rule of Law (ICED) who represented the Latin American network CLAVE in presenting the development of the model law and Dr. Gustavo Colás, Secretary for the Commission on Internal Security and Drugs Trafficking of the Senate of Argentina, talked about the various paradigms in arms control issues and their relation to general policies and citizens’ security in an international context.

In a huge step forward, the President of the Haitian Senate and the Chamber of Deputies expressed great interest in working with CERESS towards developing an arms control law in Haiti.