Small Arms Survey

15/10/2026

With roughly 33% of all customs-seized fi****ms coming from marine vessels, how can international instruments better support mitigation efforts towards arms trafficking by ?

Currently, arms control instruments like the and tend to focus on the gendered impacts of armed violence and the meaningful participation of women, leaving the gendered structure of arms trafficking supply chains unexamined and creating a blind spot.

In our new blog post, Dr Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood examines how applying a gender lens to the whole process of maritime arms trade can help bridge the policy silos that have long separated maritime security, arms control, and gender-responsive programming—thereby helping to make responses more effective and sustainable

'High-profile port seizures consistently disprove a long-held assumption regarding arms trafficking - demonstrating that the world's most destabilizing volumes of illicit weapons move not across land borders, but by sea. The Global Study on Fi****ms Trafficking 2020 by the United Nations Office on D...

13/10/2026

participants don't forget tomorrow at Geneva Peace Forum to join our panel on multisectoral responses to armed violence and weapons proliferation!

Alongside Center for Security Studies CENSS , Vlaams Vredesinstituut, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and experts from West Africa, Western Europe, Ukraine, and the Caribbean, we'll discuss practical evidence that demonstrates how small arms control and preventive initiatives support sustainable pathways to peace.

09/10/2026

Last chance to register for Geneva Peace Forum to attend our joint side event on 14 October:

https://www.genevapeaceforum.ch/en/gpf-2026/registration

Join the Survey, Center for Security Studies CENSS , Vlaams Vredesinstituut, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research at the on 14 October to discuss how integrating small arms control within public health approaches, armed violence reduction strategies, and community engagement can build more sustainable pathways to peace.

Bringing together experts from West Africa, Western Europe, Ukraine, and the Caribbean, this panel highlights practical evidence of how small arms control and preventive initiatives can effectively converge and help bridge policy and grassroots reality.

Register for here: https://www.genevapeaceforum.ch/en/gpf-2026/registration

08/10/2026

Cometh the hour, cometh the man! The Philippine ratification of the stalled for nearly a decade until Senator Aquilino Martin ‘Koko’ de la Llana Pimentel III became its champion.

By addressing the industry lobby’s concerns directly and framing the ATT as a complement to the Philippines’ long-standing policy of championing and , Senator Pimentel helped push ratification over the finish line. Yet, his ability to do so was founded on the near-decade long efforts of government agencies and .

Read more about the Philippines’ ATT ratification story—what changed, who pushed, who resisted, and which arguments finally prevailed—in our blog post by Manon Blancafort and Bianca Pabotoy:

'On the afternoon of 26 January 2022, the Philippine Senate voted in favour of Resolution №960 - with 16 votes for, none against, and six abstentions. The vote saw the Senate give their formal concurrence (agreement) to the ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), thereby marking the end of a ...

05/10/2026

Join the Survey, Center for Security Studies CENSS , Vlaams Vredesinstituut, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research at the on 14 October to discuss how integrating small arms control within public health approaches, armed violence reduction strategies, and community engagement can build more sustainable pathways to peace.

Bringing together experts from West Africa, Western Europe, Ukraine, and the Caribbean, this panel highlights practical evidence of how small arms control and preventive initiatives can effectively converge and help bridge policy and grassroots reality.

Register for here: https://www.genevapeaceforum.ch/en/gpf-2026/registration

02/10/2026

🔎 How can we move beyond securitized responses to armed violence and weapons proliferation?

At , UNIDIR and partners will explore linking small arms control with public health, violence prevention and community engagement.

🔗 Register: unidir.org/BeyondSecurity

02/10/2026

In September, the Small Arms Survey and our long-standing partner, the Center for Security Studies CENSS “CENSS”, presented our new joint project in Kyiv to our Local Advisory Committee. The committee is the expert network we built during the previous phase of our work in Ukraine.

'Evidence-Based Approaches to Addressing Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation Risks in Ukraine' runs from April 2026 to March 2028 and is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. It builds on our earlier work, including the Weapons Compass report published last December.

The project rests on three pillars:

- Evidence: monitoring illicit weapons, a national population survey, and research on the militarisation and misuse of dual-use drone technologies.
- Capacity: training for police officers and judges handling illicit-weapons cases. This autumn, sessions are delivered with Донецький державний університет внутрішніх справ , Всеукраїнська Асоціація Жінок - Суддів and Національна школа суддів України. From 2027, the training will extend to journalists to support accurate reporting on illicit weapons.
- Policy dialogue: with Ukrainian civil society and other key stakeholders, including local authorities and veterans, on emerging risks and on crime prevention approaches suited to Ukraine.

Read more from CENSS: https://censs.org/censs-and-the-small-arms-survey-are-launching-a-new-project-the-focus-is-on-countering-the-risks-associated-with-the-proliferation-of-small-arms-and-light-weapons/

Our work in Ukraine also benefits from support from Switzerland, France, and NORAD (through Norwegian People's Aid).

01/10/2026

“Today's discussion made clear that [PMFs] are no longer a niche issue. They affect every region, and countering them depend on better identification, tracing, and information-sharing across borders.”

Earlier this week at the 15th UN , we organised a side event with the support of INTERPOL HQ , World Customs Organization - Organisation Mondiale des Douanes, جامعة الدول العربية - League of Arab States and the EU in the UAE that brought together experts and stakeholders to discuss the increasing challenges posed by privately made fi****ms.

With no serial number or paper trail, monitoring these weapons during any stage of their lifecycle seems an overwhelming task. Discussions during our ancillary meeting highlighted the importance of information sharing amongst security agencies, particularly between customs, forensics, military, and law enforcement in addressing the rising threat of .

Thanks to all partners, panelists, and attendees for their participation, and to UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for hosting our side event.

This side event was part of a joint European Union 🇪🇺 and League of Arab States - General Secretariat initiative to strengthen the capacity of League of Arab States member states to counter illicit small arms and light weapons, implemented by the Survey, INTERPOL, and WCO.

30/09/2026

As the US declares Sudan’s warring leaders ‘ineligible to govern’ and pledges to raise the costs of continued conflict, our new HSBA Briefing Paper examines a fundamental shift: from an era when Washington exercised considerable leverage over to a multipolar order in which that leverage has sharply declined.

‘Sudan and the Emerging World Order: From US Unipolarity to Multipolarity’ traces three decades of engagement with Sudan and examines how the increasing influence of regional powers and competing external interests has empowered Sudan’s warring generals and made ending the current war more difficult: https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/resource/sudan-and-emerging-world-order-us-unipolarity-multipolarity

25/09/2026

A gun with no serial number, printed at home or built from a kit.

Privately made fi****ms are reshaping crime and conflict. Join the Small Arms Survey, INTERPOL HQ and World Customs Organization - Organisation Mondiale des Douanes for a side event during the the 15th Crime Congress, 28 September, dedicated to discussion about and other forms of non-industrially produced small arms and light weapons.

Register for the hybrid side event, 'Privately Made Fi****ms and Other Non-Industrial Small Arms and Light Weapons: New Challenges and Perspectives', here: https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/event/privately-made-fi****ms-and-other-non-industrial-small-arms-and-light-weapons-new-challenges

This side event forms part of a joint European Union 🇪🇺 and جامعة الدول العربية - League of Arab States initiative to strengthen the capacity of League of Arab States member states to counter illicit small arms and light weapons, implemented by the Survey, INTERPOL, and WCO.