MEDIA SENSITIZATION WORKSHOP ON SMALL ARMS, LIGHT WEAPONS CONTROL HOLDS IN GHANA

ABUJA, Nigeria, April 18, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- A three-day sensitization and capacity building workshop for journalists in Ghana, opens on Thursday, 19th April 2012 at Sogakope near the country's border with Togo, as part of efforts to promote effective implementation of the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) control which entered into force in September 2009.

The objective of the workshop is to sensitize participants and build their capacities on small arms and light weapons control sufficiently to enable them to play effective role as change agents through sensitization of their various publics on a constant and sustainable

basis.

Print and broadcast journalists in government and private media organizations, as well as ECOWAS Commission officials and resource persons will attend the meeting which will address the commonality of challenges of proliferation of SALWs and shared insufficiency of the level of awareness around SALWs and related matters in Member States.

The political restiveness of the region is accentuated partly by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

The aim of the sensitization workshop is therefore to engender a favourable environment for policies and programmes that will facilitate the implementation of the SALW Convention so as to reduce the spate and intensity of conflicts linked to illegal circulation of

SALWs in the region.

Similar workshops have been held in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea and Liberia, and it is the plan by the ECOWAS Commission to progressively cover all 15 Member States.