SALW

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The AK-47, the most ubiquitous automatic weapon in the world

SALW is an acronym, meaning Small Arms, Light Weapons, a term used in arms control protocols to refer to two main classes of weapons:

Small arms - hand-held small caliber firearms, usually consisting of handguns, rifles, shotguns, manual, semi automatic, and full automatic weapons and man-portable machineguns.

Light weapons - Includes a wide range of medium-caliber and explosive ordnance, including man-portable and vehicle-mounted antipersonnel, antitank and antiaircraft rockets, missiles, landmines, antiaircraft guns, mortars, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and so on.

These definitions may vary depending on the convention and on the expansion of the term's use over time with the introduction of new weapons technologies and concerns. For example:

SALW include all arms that can be used by one person alone and all associated ammunition, including grenades, rockets, missiles, mortar shells and man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS), and that landmines can be considered as having similar effects,
Recalling that items such as daggers, machetes, clubs, spears, and bows and arrows are also frequently used in armed conflicts and criminal acts, and that, although they do not fall under the SALW category, their use may need to be regulated,
Recalling also that the definition of SALW should not include daggers and other items which are not firearms and are not used to cause bodily harm, but as part of the national dress,
Deeply concerned also by the high political, social and financial costs incurred when SALW fuel armed conflict, armed criminality and terrorism, exacerbate violence, contribute to the displacement of civilians, undermine respect for international humanitarian law, impede the provision of humanitarian assistance to victims of armed conflict, and hinder a return to peace and sustainable development,
Recognizing the threat posed to civilian aviation, peacekeeping, crisis management and security by the illicit transfer and unauthorized access to and use of MANPADS,
Affirming that combating the proliferation and misuse of SALW requires coherent and comprehensive efforts by governmental and other players at the international, regional and national levels...^[1]

Thus, SALW include grenades, but does not include bows and arrows according to this convention.

Such arms control policies and treaties are focused on international arms trafficking (importation and export), and in the standardization of laws, protocols and sharing of law enforcement information and best practices across nations to prevent illicit arms sales. They also focus on terrorism, arms proliferation as a humanitarian concern, disarmament in the face of extreme violence, and cases of ameliorating anarchy, civil war and international conflict. SALW provisions are generally not oriented towards imposing or enforcing domestic national or local legislation of legitimate gun ownership or sale.^[2]

1 UN SALW Control Efforts
2 Related Activities
3 References
4 Notes

[edit] UN SALW Control Efforts

The term "SALW" has existed for some time, but was raised to the UN General Assembly late in 1995 via Resolution A/RES/50/70 (15 January 1996). It was noted small arms and light weapons were used to cause many, if not most, deaths in conflicts around the world. This resolution provided a goal to research the type of small arms and light weapons being used in the world's conflicts and to study which weapons might apply to fall under an arms control regime.

Reports returned to the General Assembly, A/52/298 (1997) and A/54/258 (1999), next led to a July 2001 Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.^[3]

Work on SALW via the United Nations falls to two main groups: the Department for Disarmament Affairs (DDA), which acts as the focal point for the internal UN mechanism known as CASA (Coordinating Action on Small Arms), and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), which carries out research in arms control affairs.

Many other related governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also work on SALW arms control.