A Guide To The Destruction Of Small Arms And Light Weapons

South Africa has been a key player in efforts to prevent the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons and to ensure better regulation of their legal use. This publication details the experience of, and approach adopted by, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), which has destroyed 260,000 small arms as part of Operation Mouflon since 1997. These destruction and verification efforts were carefully planned and implemented to ensure that the safety and security of personnel was maintained and that the weapons were rendered unusable. It is hoped that this case study will provide valuable guidance to planners and policy makers in other countries seeking to design their own weapons destruction efforts and collection programmes.

Small Arms are responsible for over half a million deaths each year. Despite this terrifying statistic, millions of guns flow into the streets of the world each year. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, and one which is barely regulated. From AK-47s to M16 rifles; from Terrorist-owned shoulder-fired missiles to child soldiers, this enlightening guide reveals the disturbing reality behind the murky underworld of international arms trading. Explaining how deals can often operate on the edge of legality, and listing the world’s main players, it goes on to ask how the exchange of small arms can be tightened in the future. Full of insight and anticipating the danger of ever lighter and more powerful weapons, this is required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the world today and one of the key threats to development, prosperity and international peace.

Summarizes developments and trends in 2021 on key issues of multilateral consideration at the internationaland regional levels. Reviews the activities of the General Assembly, the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission. Contains a timeline that highlights events in multilateral disarmament in 2021. Has a foreword written by the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

Disarmament is integral to the safeguarding and promotion of security, development, and human rights. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on disarmament operations, yet no comprehensive guide exists to explain clearly the international rules governing disarmament. This book seeks to fill that gap. It describes the international legal rules that govern disarmament and the operational, political, and technical considerations that govern their implementation. This book aims to support compliance, implementation, and further development of international disarmament law. Traditionally, disarmament focused on weapons of mass destruction. This remains a critically important area of work. In recent decades, the scope of disarmament has broadened to encompass also conventional weapons, including through the adoption of rules and regulations to govern arms transfers and measures to eliminate specific munitions from stockpiles and to destroy explosive remnants of war. There have also been four "generations" of programmes to address small arms and light weapons at national or sub-national level through disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes during and following the end of armed conflict. While an internationally accepted definition of disarmament does not yet exist, it is widely agreed that disarmament encompasses or interrelates with prohibitions and restrictions on the development, production, stockpiling, testing, and transfer of weapons and on their destruction. In addition to clarifying these elements, chapters of this guide will also consider the relationship between disarmament and the law of armed conflict, and with the United Nations Security Council, human security, public health, and non-state actors.

This book examines the emergence of new international norms to govern the spread of small arms, and the extent to which these norms have been established in the policies and practices of states, regions and international organizations. It also attempts to establish criteria for assessing norm emergence, and to assess the process of norm development by comparing what actually happens at the multilateral level. If norm-making on small arms and related multilateral negotiations have mostly dealt with ‘illicit arms’, and most of the norms examined here fall on the arms supplier side of the arms equation, the author argues that the creation of international norms and the setting of widely agreed standards amongst states on all aspects of the demand for, availability, and spread of both legal and illegal small arms and light weapons must become central to the multilateral coordination of policy responses in order to tackle the growing violence associated with small arms availability. Small Arms and Security will be of interest to researchers and professionals in the fields of peace and conflict studies, global governance, international security and disarmament.

This handbook provides critical analyses of the theory and practices of small arms proliferation and its impact on conflicts and organized violence in Africa. It examines the terrains, institutions, factors and actors that drive armed conflict and arms proliferation, and further explores the nature, scope, and dynamics of conflicts across the continent, as well as the extent to which these conflicts are exacerbated by the proliferation of small arms. The volume features rich analyses by contributors who are acquainted with, and widely experienced in, the formal and informal structures of arms proliferation and control, and their repercussions on violence, instability and insecurity across Africa. The chapters dissect the challenges of small arms and light weapons in Africa with a view to understanding roots causes and drivers, and generating a fresh body of analyses that adds value to the existing conversation on conflict management and peacebuilding in Africa. With contributions from scholars, development practitioners, defence and security professionals and civil society activists, the handbook seeks to serve as a reference for students, researchers, and policy makers on small arms proliferation, control and regulation; defence and security practitioners; and those involved in countering violence and managing conflicts in Africa.