The proliferation and misuse of, as well as the uncontrolled access to, small arms and light weapons (SALW) pose severe risks to communities and national and regional security. In civil wars and conflicts, small arms are also used in serious crimes such as human or wildlife trafficking. They often constitute a major threat to everyday civilian life. For instance, poorly managed SALW armouries and munitions depots present a significant risk to surrounding communities. Time and again, there are explosions at ammunition stockpiles with many casualties. Moreover, weapons and ammunition can be stolen from insufficiently secured depots or diverted by corrupt security forces and then illegally circulated.

BICC’s aim is to develop innovative ways of how to control small arms in conflict-prone regions. Currently, our advisory activities focus on East and West Africa, as well as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region. Our work is based on a multi-level approach: It links political, strategic, regulatory and technical measures from the international to the local level. In this, we cooperate with certain countries and organisations mandated by their member states to strengthen small arms control: The African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Regional Centre on Small Arms in the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and Bordering States (RECSA) and the Sudan-based Sub-Regional Small Arms Control Mechanism (SARCOM).

BICC’s research and advisory work focuses on several aspects of small arms control: e.g. strengthening regional and national-level regulation of small arms control, countering the illicit cross-border trafficking of small arms through enhanced regional cooperation, physical security and stockpile management (PSSM), marking, record-keeping and tracing of weapons and ammunition as well as improved coordination of arms control initiatives at the regional and international level. Furthermore, BICC has developed a tool to build and share knowledge on SALW: The SALW-Guide is a publicly available online source of data on the most common SALW found around the world, including data on more than 80 different types of SALW (available in English, German, Spanish and French).