Small Arms, Light Weapons, and Illicit Arms Trade: The Challenges of Stopping Their Use in Violations of International Humanitarian Law

Since the first half of the twentieth century, peoples, as well as the international community, have realized the danger of weapons of mass destruction and their use in wars and armed conflicts as the greatest threat to humanity; which prompted the international community after World War I to gradually prohibit the use of this type of weapons, starting from the Geneva Protocol on Prohibition of Chemical and Biological Weapons to the more recent Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. However, since the end of World War II, small arms and light weapons have begun to emerge as real weapons of mass destruction. Without detracting from the devastating and catastrophic effects of nuclear, radiological, chemical, and biological weapons, it should be noted that the vast majority of dead and wounded in armed conflicts from that time after World War II to the present day have fallen victims to attack by rifles, grenades, mortars, and other small arms and light weapons.<br><br>Despite these devastating effects of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons that are no less lethal than nuclear and chemical weapons, the latter became at the center of the attention of researchers, politicians, and international legislators – whereas the former, which is the subject of this Paper, has been almost completely ignored until the end of the twentieth century. Over the past two decades, the international community has begun to realize the grave danger posed by the proliferation and illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. This tendency from the side of the international community began to crystalize more clearly since the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects in 2001, which considered that their spread in this form has become “one of the most urgent problems facing international peace and security”.<br><br>Today, weapons that fall under the category of small arms and light weapons, such as assault rifles, machine guns, grenades, and mortars, are not only the most used in armed conflicts around the world but also the most used to deliberately target civilians in particular. In addition, compared to the other means of warfare we have referred to alongside major weapons systems, estimating the scale of trade in small arms and light weapons is much more difficult – whether with respect to global trade or illicit trade. Therefore, it is hard to estimate the volume of this trade precisely, not to mention the difficulty of controlling or tracking small arms and light weapons.<br><br>The Paper explains at the outset what small arms and light weapons are, mentioning their examples and characteristics (I); then takes a glance at the emergence and spread of using small arms and light weapons in armed conflicts around the world (II); and moves on to present the situation of these weapons today and the effects of their proliferation (III); then it addresses the legal framework and the international community's response to this issue (IV); and addresses after that the situation with regard to the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (V); it also presents the position of international humanitarian law on the small arms and light weapons (VI); and sheds light on the violations committed by using small arms and light weapons in Arab countries witnessing armed conflicts (VII); and lastly discusses the challenges confronting stopping the use of small arms and light weapons in violations of international humanitarian law; and concludes with the conclusions and a set of recommendations.