Excerpt of SG's Report on Africa dealing with the proliferation of arms Stopping the proliferation of arms 27.
All States have the right and responsibility to provide for their own defence.
Africa's compelling development interests nonetheless require that a minimum of resources be diverted for military purposes. In 1997 only eight African countries provided information to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. I urge all African countries to participate in the Register, in a manner that will make a positive contribution to regional and subregional confidence-building efforts. These could include the establishment of supplementary subregional registers of conventional arms. Furthermore, in order to diminish the threat which the proliferation of small arms poses for Africa, I call upon African countries to agree to reduce their purchases of arms and munitions to below 1.5 per cent of GDP, and to commit themselves to a zero-growth policy for defence budgets for a period of 10 years. 28.