Small Arms Control

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).
Current Projects
Events
December 2018: National PSSm training, Khartoum, Sudan
October 2018: Report presentation "Technical assessment of weapons and ammunition management in the Gambia", Banjul, Gambia
October 2018: Regional training on physical security and stockpile management (PSSM), Nairobi, Kenya
October 2018: Sensitization Meeting on the Implementation of ECOWAS Convention, Banjul, Gambia
October 2018: PSSM partnership retreat, Nairobi, Kenya
October 2018: Pilot training of a mulit-phase regional PSSM course, Jaji, Nigeria
May 2018: Cross-border cooperation workshop, Khartoum, Sudan
November 2017: Executive Course on Weapons and Ammunition Management, Berlin, Geilenkirchen, Germany
September 2017: PSSM seminar on weapons management from 24 to 28 September 2017, organized by RECSA, SARCOM BICC and German Cooperation, Khartoum, Sudan
March 2017: Greater Sahel Donor Coordination Meeting, Berlin, Germany
November/December 2016: Capacity-Building Seminar on Weapons Management, Kaduna, Nigeria
November 2016: Weapons and Ammunition Management Assessment Workshop, Abuja, Nigeria
November 2016: Multinational Executive-Level Seminar on PSSM, Berlin/Geilenkirchen, Germany
October 2016: Workshop on Good Practices and International Standards in PSSM, Bamako, Mali
July 2016: Arms Destruction Exercise, Makurdi, Nigeria
June 2016: 6th Biennial Meeting of States on the Programme of Action, New York, United States