The contrast could hardy be sharper: while we know that small arms and light weapons (SALW) are the number one killers of combatants and innocents alike in conflicts around the world, we know far less about the international trade in these weapons. This Policy Paper makes an important contribution to closing that gap. In recent years, intergovernmental organizations, export control regimes and states have worked to provide more information to other states and the public on SALW transfers. One of the most notable efforts has been the UN General Assembly’s decision of December 2003 to invite member states to provide information
on SALW transfers to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA). This Policy Paper is the first study to document and analyse information on SALW transfers reported to UNROCA for 2003–2006. The author, Dr Paul Holtom, presents and analyses the level of reporting to UNROCA on SALW transfers and the information reported. He finds that while, in recent years, far more intergovernmental and public information has been made available on international SALW transfers, this information falls far short of providing a full picture. While the level of reporting on light weapons to UNROCA has been fairly steady for the years 2003–2006, a significant increase in submissions of background information on SALW transfers followed the introduction of a standardized reporting form for 2006. However, despite this noteworthy increase, UNROCA still only captures a fraction of the information on international SALW transfers that states otherwise make available, and the UNROCA reporting system faces both technical and political hurdles for its improvement and possible expansion. This Policy Paper helps inform the debate over how these improvements can be put be in place. In that light, it is intended as a contribution to the 2008 Biennial Meeting of States on implementation of the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. It is also hoped that the study will inform the work of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on the continuing operation and further development of UNROCA, which is due to convene in 2009. More broadly, the study highlights the challenges and opportunities of making the international trade in weapons more transparent. Dr Holtom is to be congratulated for this original and thorough study, which adds to the growing body of SIPRI research on small arms and light weapons.
Thanks are due to the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its generous financial support for this study, and to all those who completed and returned the SIPRI questionnaire on SALW submissions to UNROCA. The author is grateful for the comments received from Dr Owen Greene and from SIPRI colleagues Ian Anthony, Mark Bromley and Pieter D. Wezeman. Special mention should also be given for the invaluable advice and support provided by SIPRI editors David Cruickshank and Joey Fox; the SIPRI Library, under Nenne Bodell; and Noel Kelly, the SIPRI Arms Transfers Project Assistant.

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