There are currently no legally binding, international rules regulating the arms trade. National controls are rife with gaps and loopholes, making it all too easy for weapons to end up in the hands of those who use them to fuel conflict, undermine development and abuse human rights and humanitarian law. This unregulated arms trade has catastrophic results: •In an average year, small arms kill around a third of a million men, women and children – and leave hundreds of thousands more injured, disabled, traumatized and grieving •2,000 people die each day from armed violence, and hundreds of thousands more are displaced, maimed or loose their livelihood •Conflict costs African countries $18bn USD every year This tragedy must, and can, be stopped.

Link to topic