SMALL ARMS ACTION: EFFORTS BY THE UNITED NATIONS TO CURB THE SPREAD AND MISUSE OF SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS

The United Nations has played a significant role in international efforts to curb the spread of small arms and light weapons. For a general discussion of the UN's interest in this topic, see the website of the Conventional Arms Branch of the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs. (This site also provides links to key UN documents in this field.)

The United Nations first took up the subject of small arms at the behest of then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. In his 1995 report to the UN Security Council, Supplement to an Agenda for Peace (UN doc. A/50/60, Jan. 3, 1995), Boutros-Ghali called for new efforts in the field of "micro-disarmament," which he defined as "practical disarmament in the context of the conflicts the United Nations is actually dealing with and with the weapons, most of them light weapons, that are actually killing people in the hundreds of thousands." This concern was then taken up by his successor as Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. "With regard to conventional weapons," he told the Conference on Disarmament in 1998, "there is a growing awareness among Member States of the urgent need to adopt measures to reduce the transfer of small arms and light weapons." Kofi Annan gave further impetus to this effort in We the Peoples, the Millennium Report of the Secretary-General (October 1999).

In 1995, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 50/70 B, calling on the Secretary-General to conduct a study of the small arms trade and its implications for international peace and security. This task was entrusted with the Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms, which released its report in August, 1997. This report, Small Arms (UN doc. A/52/298, August 27, 1997), provides an excellent analysis of the small arms trade and offers practical solutions for its control. The overall recommendations of the Small Arms Panel were approved by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1997 in Resolution 52/38/J. This resolution also authorized establishment of a Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms and gave the go-ahead for a UN conference on illicit arms trafficking (see below). The Report of the Group of Experts (Un doc. A/54/258) was released on August 19, 1999. For access to this report and the text of key UN resolutions on small arms, visit the website of the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs. Additional links to many of the key UN documents in this field are available at the website of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).

UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. In the summer of 2001, the United Nations convened an international conference on illicit arms trafficking. Information on the United Nations Conference on Small Arms and related documents are available at the web site of the UN's Department of Disarmament Affairs. Additional information on this important event is available from the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).

The most divisive issues at the Conference surrounded issues of civilian possession of firearms, the arming of non-state actors, transparency, export criteria, and follow-up. Although many compromises could not be reached, the Conference adopted a Programme of Action that allows countries to work on small arms in a comprehensive and global manner. The Conference also agreed on a follow-up conference no later than 2006 with the precise date determined by the General Assembly at the 58^th session, plus biennial conferences to gauge progress on the implementation of the Programme of Action. For the text of this document, visit the United Nations Conference on Small Arms .

Biting the Bullet series prepared by BASIC, International Alert, Saferworld:

Briefing 1 - An Agenda for the UN 2001 Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects February 2000

Briefing 2 - Regional Initiatives and the UN 2001 Conference: Building Mutual Support and Complementarity

Briefing 3 - Stockpile Security and Reducing Surplus Weapons

Briefing 4 - The UN Firearms Protocol: Considerations for the UN 2001 Conference

Briefing 5 - Enhancing Traceability of Small Arms and Light Weapons Flows: Developing an International Marking and Tracing Regime

Briefing 6 - Combating the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons: Enhancing Controls on Legal Transfers

Briefing 7 - Combating the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons: Strengthening Domestic Regulations

Briefing 8 - Controlling Arms Brokering and Transport Agents: Time for International Access

Briefing 9- Information Exchange and Transparancy: Key Elements of an International Action Programme on Small Arms

Briefing 10- Private Military and Security Companies and the Proliferation of Small Arms: Regulating the Actors

Briefing 11- Putting Children First: Building a Framework for International Action to Address the Impact of Small Arms on Children

Briefing 12- Reducing the Stock of the Illicit Trade: Promoting Best Practice in Weapons Collection Programmes

Briefing 13- Building Comprehensive Controls on Small Arms Manufacturing, Transfer, and End Use

Briefing 15- Implementing the UN Action Programme for Combating the Illicit Trafficing in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects

Laurance, Edward J., "Shaping the Global Public Policy on Small Arms: After the UN Conference" The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Spring 2002, Volume IX, Issue 1, pp. 193-202

Reyes Rodriguez, Camilo, "The UN Conference on Small Arms: Progress on Disarmament through Practical Steps" The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Spring 2002, Volume IX, Issue 1, pp.173-178.

"UN Small Arms Conference," SAIS Review: A Journal of International Affairs, Winter-Spring 2002, Volume XXII, Number 1: Aaron Karp, "Laudable Failure," (pp. 177-194); Owen Greene, "A Useful Step Forward?" (pp. 195-202); Thomas Mason, "A Free Trade Perspective from the Firearms Community," (pp. 203-206); Natalie Goldring, "Creating Global Transparency Regimes," (pp. 207-212); Albrecht Muth, "What Next?" (pp. 213-218); Rachel Stohl, "Relevant Now More than Ever," (pp. 219-222); Charli Wyatt, "The Forgotten Victims of Small Arms,"  (pp. 223-228); Loretta Bondi, "Disillusioned NGOs Blame the United States for a Weak Argument" (pp.229-234).

UN Firearms Protocol: On May 31, 2001, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime [A/Res/55/255].  The Protocol provides an international law enforcement mechanism for crime prevention and the prosecution of traffickers.  Background documents for the Vienna negotiations are available at the website of the UN Criminal Justice Information Network.

UNIDIR, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, in Geneva, has a website devoted to small arms issues with many useful documents and links.

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