HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

The annual value of authorized international transfers of small arms, light weapons, their parts, accessories, and ammunition is at least USD 8.5 billion, according to the Small Arms Survey 2012: Moving Targets.

*Photo by Lance Cpl. Will Lathrop | Wikimedia Commons.

The new figure, the result of a four-year investigation completed this year, is more than double the previous estimate of around USD 4 billion, released in 2006, adds this independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

An expansion in the arms trade is partly responsible for the upward revision, its reports.

“Two important sources of growth are increased spending by US civilians on small arms and their ammunition, and large-scale government purchases of military firearms and light weapons for international and national armed forces involved in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Better information and more nuanced research methodologies have also played a role in refining the estimate.”

Human Wrongs Watch

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged sustained efforts to tackle the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons, “which kill more than half a million people each year, with a particularly heavy toll on civilians.”

Some light and heavy weapons collected from fighters under a disarmament programme. UN Photo/S. Waak

“Our collective responsibility is clear: to prevent the flow of illegal small arms into conflict and post-conflict areas and the hands of warlords, traffickers and criminals,” he said in remarks to the opening of the Second Review Conference of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons on 27 August.