The House of Peoples’ Representatives on Thursday was presented with four UN approved protocols which need Parliamentary approval before passing onto the statute book. This is expected within three weeks. One is the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (ICSFT). 174 countries have currently signed the ICSFT following the UN Security Council’s recommendation for countries to join. The UN said the multilateral treaty, which is open to all UN members, is designed to criminalize the activity of those who finance terrorist activities, and to promote police and judicial cooperation to prevent such actions as well as investigate and punish those involved. The House of Representatives in its regular session also sent three other UN protocols, drawn up at Palermo in 2000, to standing committees for consideration. These are the Protocol against Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, their parts and components and ammunition; the Protocol against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air; and the Protocol to Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children. The standing committees are expected to bring the protocols back to the House floor for final endorsement in three weeks time. The smuggling protocol entered into force in January 2004 and has been signed by over 120 states; the protocol on trafficking entered into force in December 2003 and has been signed by close to 150 countries. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sybella Wilkes, said despite the Palermo Protocols last year was the deadliest since 2006 which was when the UNHCR had started to record migration/refugee statistics. During the year the UNHCR estimated people from 15 nations lost their lives or had gone missing in trying to cross the Mediterranean; and at least 1,500 migrants, mainly from Africa, had died trying to reach the shores of Europe.