Monitoring and Implementation of Small Arms Controls (MISAC)

This major research project is a three-year initiative to help countries in Latin America, West Africa and Eurasia better implement controls on small arms and light weapons (SALW). By working with governments, the international community and NGOs the project aims not only to develop improved understanding of international and regional small arms controls but to directly assist these groups to work together towards more effective ways of putting them into practice.

Together with local partners we have undertaken extensive research on the implementation of small arms controls, mapping the situation regionally in Latin America, West Africa and Eurasia and sub-regionally in Central and Eastern Europe, the Black Sea region, Central Asia, MERCOSUR countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay), Central America, and in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

This series of 10 reports gave a profile of regional and international agreements on arms exports and controls, identifying the organisations that have been working to end illicit trafficking or small arms and assessing their potential to influence change. The findings have been fed into a series of consultation meetings, co-hosted by our partners in Panama City, Buenos Aires, Bishkek and Accra, and attended by government representatives, civil society organisations, customs directorates, foreign ministries, arms controls bodies and the judicial police.

The consultation in Buenos Aires was the first time that civil society groups, parliamentarians and pro-disarmament government officials at the MERCOSUR level had been brought together. Subsequent to the Panamanian consultation the government announced that it was reviewing legislation in order to make arms smuggling a criminal rather than an administrative offence and, shortly after the Accra consultation, the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) announced the formation of a small arms unit. The Central Asia consultation in Bishkek was the first regional NGO meeting examining small arms issues in the area.

The next phase of the project will be to craft sustainable policies with our local and international partners to strengthen small arms measures within selected states.

Drawing from the cumulative research of the MISAC Project, we have published a cross-regional report assessing the key barriers to implementing SALW countrols globally. You can download Implementing International Small Arms Controls: Some Lessons from Eurasia, Latin America and West Africa or any of the previous MISAC reports from our publications pages.

We have also recently produced a CD-ROM with updates of small arms controls in a number of countries. To order a copy, please click here. Alternatively, you can download PDF copies of our country case studies by clicking on the country names below (all files will open in a new window):

For more information contact Charlotte Watson

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Last updated: February 2006