Over 75 kilos of unexploded ordnance (UXOs), captured from al-Shabaab militants, are destroyed outside of Mogadishu, Somalia, at a safe location.
heavy conventional arms is big business. But more weapons in a region can mean the prolongation and intensification of conflict. Also, the transfer of conventional arms to States that have a troubled history with democracy, human rights, and non-proliferation is a recurring problem. That is why, in 2013, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the landmark Arms Trade Treaty. It creates a level playing field for the global arms trade, bringing to it more accountability, openness and transparency, and making it harder for human rights abusers, criminals and arms traffickers to obtain weapons. All important weapons systems are covered by the treaty: battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery, fighter jets, attack helicopters warships, missiles, small arms and light weapons as well as ammunition. “It is a historic achievement—the culmination of longheld dreams and many years of effort. This is a victory for the world’s people. The Arms Trade Treaty will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market, and it will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms. It will be a powerful new tool in our efforts to prevent grave human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law.” —Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 April 2013
AC T ION FOR DIS A RM A MENT: 10 T H INGS YOU C A N DO
LANDMINES AND CLUSTER BOMBS: Although categorized as
conventional weapons, landmines and cluster bombs are often treated as a category in and of themselves because of their inhumane impact in post-conflict situations. These weapons are problematic because their victims are often civilians. Roughly one third are women and children. Landmines and cluster munitions remain long after the conflict has ended. Landmines are very expensive to detect and remove. They are cheap to deploy but difficult to uncover. It is estimated that there are 60 million landmines planted in the world’s conflict areas.
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