LIBERIA: Sekou, a young LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) rebel sits in an abandoned classroom. The infrastructure of the country collapsed during the four-year civil war, forcing Charles Taylor, the President and an indicted war criminal, to step down from office.Photographer © Tim A Hetherington / Panos Pictures

Research and activities on weapon-related effects on development are, besides military spending, at the core of IPB’s programme on Disarmament for Development.

From a human security perspective, small arms and light weapons are of particular importance; their effects on public health, human rights, social and economic development make them primarily an issue of human security rather than of national or military security. Moreover, due to their uncontrolled spread and widespread availability, SALW undermine human security more than any other kind of conventional weapon.

Among developing regions, Sub-Saharan Africa is most adversely affected by armed violence and poverty, and the connection between the misuse of illicit SALW and underdevelopment seems to be more evident in Africa than in any other region of the world.

The policy aim of IPB is that SALW-related initiatives take fully into account the vicious cycles of SALW, human insecurity and underdevelopment, and pursue an integrated approach to small arms control and development as an effective means to prevent crime and conflict. A holistic approach to micro-disarmament requires controls of small arms proliferation on the supply side as well as prevention of arms purchase and misuse on the demand-side.

The mutual reinforcement between small arms control and development policies has been endorsed in the 2001 UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA), which is the most important international agreement on small arms control so far. However, the Programme is far from being a comprehensive and effective framework for the improvement of human security. The PoA clearly misses the opportunity to make the linkages between small arms and development a key issue on the international agenda and to make concrete commitments and recommendations -  for example in terms of  policies to address the demand for small arms, transfers to non-state actors, civilian use of small arms, assistance to survivors, and, in that context, the financial and technical needs of developing countries.

Although theoretical approaches to the small arms problem have become more comprehensive since 2001, overall implementation, even of the narrower norms of the PoA, has been very unsatisfactory.

From the perspective of human security it was thus vital that the international community would put humanitarian and developmental aspects into the centre of small arms policies, and establish a holistic action agenda.                                                                     

The UN Small Arms Review Conference from 27 June to 7 July 2006 aimed at evaluating efforts on small arms controls and setting standards for the improvement of policies. The Conference has been deemed a failure because it neither implemented a proper review, nor did it agree on new commitments or concrete recommendations extending the provisions of the PoA.

As a matter of fact, States did submit and discuss useful propositions, which went beyond the scope of the PoA, and which would have addressed the issue of small arms and development more effectively. However, as decisions could be taken only by consensus, a small number of states, including the United States, Cuba, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan, blocked agreement on a final document. While it is certainly true that an agreement could not be reached because of the firm resistance of a minority of states who sought to secure their national economic and political interests, it is also a fact that few governments have really actively pursued efficient controls of arms transfers.

In conclusion, it seems that, for the time being, the normative basis of the UN Process on Small Arms  remains limited to the 2001 Programme of Action as its core document. In fact, the provisions of the PoA represent an enabling framework for reducing the harmful effects of small arms, and it is still a challenge for the international community to fully implement these original norms. However, more concrete interpretations of the PoA would have facilitated implementation, and made it more effective.

As there are no prospects for a further UN conference on small arms to take place in the near future, progress will only be possible at the local, national and (sub-)regional level. The achievement of the Millenium Development Goals requires effective action on SALW which addresses both the supply- and demand side in a comprehensive way. Nongovernmental programmes pursuing a human security approach are able to play an important role in this process: lobbying of and cooperation with governments, international agencies, regional initiatives, and civil society actors – especially community-based groups – represent important entry-points for NGO activities. Ongoing progress “at the bottom” could contribute to the emergence of improved global standards in the field of SALW proliferation and of policies to tackle the demand for weapons.

To read more, download the IPB Report on Small Arms and Development

Another valuable resource: Websites on Small Arms and Development