United Nations Member States will meet in New York this week for the UN Preparatory Committee for the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA PrepCom). The objective of this meeting is to prepare the agenda for the Second PoA Review Conference (to be held in August and September), which will assess progress made in meeting the wide-ranging commitments laid out by the PoA to address the problem of small arms proliferation and misuse.

Since the adoption of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA) in 2001, more than 80 per cent of UN member states have submitted at least one PoA national report on their implementation of the instrument. But many of these reports leave much to be desired.

The Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA) was adopted in 2001, and since then a total of 584 national reports have been submitted by signatories, providing information on how they have implemented the recommendations of the agreement.

Working Paper No. 9 (see Annexes)

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