International action on small arms 2005

Examining implementation of the UN Programme of Action

Summary It has been four years since the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) was agreed in July 2001. This agreement stands as the central global agreement on preventing, combating and reducing illicit trafficking, proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW) - an urgent global problem that contributes to thousands of deaths each week and to human suffering and insecurity across much of the world.

This Report provides a comprehensive review of progress towards implementing the important commitments contained in the PoA, drawing on data gathered for over 180 countries and analysing relevant local, national, regional and international processes. It aims: to provide a relatively comprehensive, analytical and reliable overview; illustrate implementation experiences across each of the regions; identify emerging strengths and weaknesses; and assess overall performance in implementing the PoA. It is a contribution to international debates, and to discussions at the 2005 Biennial Meeting of States and preparations for the 2006 UN Review Conference.

The PoA is a politically binding document agreed by consensus at a high political level. In spite of its many inadequacies, agreement of the PoA was a watershed in the development of international commitments to prevent and reduce SALW trafficking and proliferation. Full implementation of its commitments would make a big impact on the scale of the problems, and the PoA now provides the main global framework for the further elaboration and development of international co-operation in this area.

The PoA was preceded by a number of regional and sub-regional agreements, particularly in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. Further, the UN Firearms Protocol was signed in 2001 (and will come into force in July 2005); this is the first legally binding global agreement on small arms, though narrower in scope than the PoA. In addition, there are several other significant international initiatives. All of these international and regional agreements and initiatives explicitly complement and reinforce the PoA, and in no sense are alternatives.

Thus this Report does not to seek to distinguish clearly between efforts to implement the PoA and to implement these associated regional and international commitments. Rather, its looks to those measures which have the effect of implementing the PoA, even if national and regional obligations are to the forefront of the minds of those involved.

This Report examines progress in implementing the PoA between 2001 and May 2005. Four years is not a long time. With the best efforts possible, it would take several more years to sufficiently reduce availability and flows of SALW to achieve a major overall impact on the scale and impacts of SALW trafficking and proliferation.

Nevertheless, four years is long enough to establish and implement the key regulations, procedures, mechanisms and programmes required, and to begin to make some difference, at least at a local or regional level. Our assessment uses criteria that are appropriate to this context. It focuses on the extent to which governments, together with relevant international and regional organisations and civil society groups, have substantially progressed in relation to:
- steps to implement their PoA commitments their understandings of the problems, issues and dynamics
- learning lessons about effective PoA implementation from experience
- developing the necessary partnerships for effective action
- making progress towards further develop shared international understandings, co-operation and agreements on important outstanding SALW issues.

The research for this Report was primarily conducted by Biting the Bullet project members (Bradford University, International Alert and Saferworld), in close co-operation with over 100 contributors from around the world - many of whom are members of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). Systematic efforts were made to verify information and assessments.

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