Weapons smuggling

The international community has recently built upon international legal regulation of transfers of conventional weapons, including the suppression of weapons smuggling, which has been developed since the end of the Cold War.¹ For example, 2013 saw the negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty,² which complements the 2001 Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Firearms Protocol).³ Developments in 2013 also enhanced and supplemented the operation of two important soft law instruments. In the same year as the UN General Assembly adopted the text of the Firearms Protocol, the international community also adopted the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, 2001 (Programme of Action).⁴ In 2005, members of the UN adopted the International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit248 Small Arms and Light Weapons, 2005 (International Tracing Instrument).⁵ This latter soft law instrument built upon the former soft law Programme of Action, providing more detailed standards to reduce the risk of illicit diversion of conventional weapons.⁶ These global instruments have also been supported by arrangements developed specifically by arms-exporting States⁷ and regional initiatives.⁸