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 2001 at least 15 countries have imported more than USD 100 million worth of small arms in a single calendar year. The United States is the world’s largest importer, having received more than USD 1billion in small arms in both 2007 and 2008.

Five countries— Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom—also routinely imported more than USD 100 million in small arms a year during the period 2001–08. However, imports by the United States average more than the combined averages of these five states.

The annual authorized trade in small arms is estimated to exceed USD 7 billion a year. The Research Note Small Arms Transfers: Exporting States offers an assessment of the countries whose exports of small arms have the greatest value. 

It is not difficult to find evidence of Brazil’s high levels of armed violence. The proof is in the grim statistics of the country’s hospitals, morgues, and prisons. This Special Report looks at two aspects of this problem. First, it explores the thriving Brazilian small arms industry, which, together with international trafficking networks, contributes to control failures and fuels small arms violence. Second, it maps out weapons holdings—by weapon type, holder, and location.

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Commissioned by IOM and the UNDP.

Available in: ENGLISH 

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Co-published with NISAT

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