Small Arms
Since the early 1990’s the problem of the diffusion of small arms and light weapons has gained international attention not only in the disarmament forum but also within the development and human rights communities.
The use of small arms and light weapons causes more than half a million of deaths each year. According to some estimates, there are more than 600 million of small arms and light weapons in circulation worldwide, and they are produced in over 100 countries.
There is no academically or politically agreed definition of small arms and light weapons, but the most widely used classification was given by the UN Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms (1997), which defined “small arms” as arms that can be carried by a person and “light weapons” as arms carried and used by a small group of persons.
- Small arms: revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, assault rifles, sub- machine guns, and light machine guns.
- Light weapons: heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, portable launchers of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems, and mortars of less than 100mm calibre.
In 2001, the member states of the United Nations agreed upon on a Programme of Action on Prevention of the Proliferation of the Small Arms and Light Weapons. Several regional organisations have also negotiated binding and non-binding conventions in order to deal with the different aspects of the small arms problem.
In 2006, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on an international arms trade treaty, an idea that had been put forward by a group of Nobel Laureates and non-governmental organisations’ Control Arms campaign launched in 2003. A Group of Governmental Experts has now finalised its work on an arms trade treaty and will submit its report to the UN Secretary General in the autumn 2008.
KATU has been active in the international Control Arms Campaign together with Peace Union of Finland and Amnesty Finland. KATU has also organised several seminars on the problem of small arms and light weapons focusing in particular on the export control systems in the eastern European countries.
