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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 10/05
Making Global Public Policy: The Case of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Edward Laurence and Rachel Stohl
December, 2002
Abstract
In the Programme of Action, agreed at the July 2001 UN Small Arms Conference, national governments adopted a wide-ranging set of commitments which, if implemented, would aid greatly in preventing and reducing the negative impacts of these weapons. In an extensive review, this paper reveals that states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have taken up this challenge in a broad series of meetings, programmes, and policies. Individual states are enacting new laws, building needed capacity, and funding projects in affected states. UN agencies are engaged in various activities in support of the Programme, while the UN Secretariat is carrying out the tasks assigned to it in this document. At the same time, regional IGOs are taking action loosely based on the Programme. And NGOs, both global and local, have embarked on specific programmes and awareness-raising initiatives, empowered by the mandate contained in the Programme.
The authors go beyond the description of these events to assess the extent to which action on small arms can be analysed in terms of a global public policy framework that has been applied to other global problems, such as pollution, HIV/AIDS, nuclear proliferation, and anti-personnel landmines.
