The UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects—known as the Programme of Action, or PoA—establishes a normative framework for small arms control and covers a broad spectrum of issue areas and activities.
Agreed to by all participants of a UN small arms conference held in July 2001, the PoA is a politically binding set of global commitments that provides UN member states with a mandate to develop and implement practical measures to curb the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons at the global, regional, and national levels.
Events
Fourth Review Conference (2024)
One of the Survey's main areas of focus regarding global small arms control processes in 2024 was the PoA's Fourth Review Conference (RevCon4). The key issues for that series of meetings included:
- improving international cooperation and assistance in implementation of the UN PoA and ITI;
- the challenges and opportunities that innovations and new technology present to the UN PoA and ITI;
- integration of small arms and light weapons into national development processes;
- setting national and regional targets for implementation;
- the fellowship training programme;
- the Open-ended technical expert group on recent developments in small arms and light weapons manufacturing, technology, and design;
- the need for reviewing and updating MOSAIC;
- improvised and artisanal small arms;
- synergies with the Global Framework on Ammunition;
- demand factors and enablers of illicit small arms and light weapons; and
- broadening gender-responsive small arms control.
Resources
Find out more about the Survey’s latest work on these thematic areas below:
Integration of small arms and light weapons into national development frameworks
Integrating gender and demand perspectives in small arms control processes
Privately made firearms and other non-industrial small arms and light weapons
New technologies and ammunition profiling
Official documents for RevCon4 can be found here.
Listen to our Road to RevCon4 podcast series, featuring expert speakers on several key issues being discussed at RevCon4.
Please visit our resource library for a full overview of publications relevant to the PoA.
