The Small Arms Survey 2003: Development Denied presents the most complete assessment of the spread of small arms around the world and their effect on society. Stressing the link between small arms and global development, it includes special chapters examining the role of small arms in Africa (Congo), the Arab world (Yemen) and the former-Soviet Union (Georgia).
The Small Arms Survey 2004: Rights at Risk provides original research and updated information on small arms production, stockpiles, and trade. In focusing on the links between small arms and the abuse of human rights, this edition explores the impact of arms exports to areas of conflict, the role of weapons in global violence and crime, and the implementation of human rights standards by police forces worldwide. The Survey also features in-depth coverage of issues such as the growing concern over MANPADS and the role of small arms in the Pacific and Kyrgyzstan.
The Small Arms Survey 2005: Weapons at War is dedicated to exploring issues surrounding armed conflict, including the sourcing of weapons to conflict areas, weapons use, conflict deaths, and post-conflict disarmament initiatives.
The Small Arms Survey 2006: Unfinished Business offers new and updated information on small arms production, stockpiles, transfers, and measures, including a review of the International Tracing Instrument.
The Small Arms Survey 2007: Guns and the City offers new and updated information on small arms production, stockpiles, transfers, and measures, including a special focus on transfer controls.
This year’s thematic section explores the complex issue of urban violence with case studies on Burundi and Brazil as well as a photo essay by award-winning combat photographer Lucian Read. This edition also features chapters on lessons learned from the tracing of ammunition, the relationship between gun prices and conflict, and the role of small arms in South Sudan.
The Small Arms Survey 2008: Risk and Resilience presents two thematic sections.
The first examines the problem of diversion as related to stockpiles, international transfers, and end-user documentation. It includes a case study on South Africa and a comic strip illustrating the potential ease by which someone with access to forged documentation can make arrangements to ship munitions virtually anywhere.
In March 2013 Kenya goes to the polls. The elections occur against a backdrop of tension and controversy: two of the four main contenders face charges at the International Criminal Court relating to the 2007–08 post-election violence; the previous electoral round left behind numerous victims, displaced people, and economic damage. During the build-up to the current election there have been eruptions of violence in political hotspots.
The 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, from 4 to 15 March this year at the UN headquarters in New York, focuses on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.
The Small Arms Survey, as part of its work on armed violence in support of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, in particular the far-reaching Global Burden of Armed Violence, makes an important contribution to ongoing debates on this issue, examining the widespread but often neglected problem of femicide.
Contrary to widespread belief, areas of armed conflict are not the main scene of armed violence and its devastating effects. While conflict hotspots like civil wars and military interventions attract global attention, other forms of armed violence often place far greater strains on societies, incurring devastating costs for individuals, communities, and economies as a whole.
Around 520,000 people die each year as a result of armed violence, mostly in non-conflict settings. Firearms account for 40% to 60% of these violent deaths. In a presentation at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva in March 2013, Prof. Keith Krause, Small Arms Survey programme director, addressed the relationship between lethal violence and firearms.