About the Project

The illicit flow and proliferation of arms pose a serious threat to international peace and security, as well as to sustainable development. While Geneva is an important hub for multilateral efforts to address this challenge, with a wide range of Geneva-based stakeholders involved in arms-related work, the community currently lacks a dedicated forum for dialogue on these issues—including the sharing of experiences, lessons learned, and relevant technical information.

In order to fill this gap, the Small Arms Survey and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) are hosting a series of Arms Transfers Dialogue (ATD) meetings for Geneva-based diplomats and other stakeholders. In general terms, these meetings will provide a forum for exploring options and approaches that support multilateral processes on conventional arms control, including small arms and light weapons. More specifically, they aim at realizing four inter-related objectives:

• To sensitize disarmament and arms control practitioners to current and emerging issues related to conventional arms control, including small arms, and to facilitate common approaches towards them;
• To build shared understandings among Geneva-based stakeholders on the provisions of conventional arms control instruments and to identify synergies among them, with a particular focus on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms (PoA);
• To identify, and facilitate discussions around, challenges and opportunities relating to the implementation of conventional arms control instruments; and
• To enhance dialogue and information exchange between disarmament, development, human rights, humanitarian, and public health communities in order to strengthen conventional arms control at the national, regional, and global levels.

Three ATD meetings are scheduled for 2017.