Experts charged with monitoring United Nations arms embargoes identify numerous organizational, operational, and political obstacles to their work, according to Monitoring UN Arms Embargoes: Observations from Panels of Experts, a new study released today by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

In September 2015 UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000–15) with a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. While reaffirming core MDG aims, such as poverty reduction and the promotion of health care and education, these SDGs and targets tackle a much broader range of factors driving underdevelopment, and clearly connect development with peace, security, and arms control.

Commentary on the Draft Arms Law in Timor-Leste, by Sarah Parker, 2008. East Timor Law Journal

Six years after independence and two years after the ‘Krize’, the role of small arms in Timor-Leste society has not yet received a thorough accounting. Such weapons have played a decisive role in shaping repressive tactics of the former colonial powers and countermeasures by resistance movements, through to contemporary criminal violence. Today, against a backdrop of weak institutions, lingering tension, and poorly enforced legislation and arms control norms, military and civilian-style arms continue to trigger interpersonal and collective violence.

Measuring Illicit Arms Flows: Niger examines the measurement of illicit arms flows in Niger in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 16. 
 

The General Peace Accord for Mozambique (GPA) in 1992 provided for the disarmament of Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO—the Mozambican National Resistance) and the governing party, Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO—the Mozambique Liberation Front), and for the integration of reduced forces from both groups into a single national army.

The Programme of Action on Small Arms (PoA) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) are politically binding instruments through which UN member states undertake to implement a range of small arms control measures to address the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, now supplemented by the Arms Trade Treaty.  

Concerns about the diversion and misuse of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) have led to calls for the development of devices to minimize the risk of their unauthorized use by non-state actors.

A new Small Arms Survey Issue Brief, One Meeting After Another: UN Process Update, draws on official documents and the author’s own observations of the Fifth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS5) to assess the meeting. BMS5 was the latest in a series of meetings on the UN Small Arms Programme of Action (PoA).