On Monday, 7 July, the First Biennial Meeting of States on the Implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons begins in New York. Small arms and light arms are a leading cause of over half a million deaths per year, including some 300,000 in armed conflict and 200,000 from homicides and suicides.

Here are some recent articles from the UN Chronicle regarding small arms, along with selected features from previous years.

Issue 2, 2003

• "The Chronicle Interview"
  Ibrahima E. Sall, Director of PCASED, notes that "the 'weaponization' of society fuels further cycles of violence, despair and, ultimately, State collapse".
  
  
• "DisarmamentWatch: Certainly as Dangerous as a Cigarette"
  by Luis Alfonso de Alba, Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations
  
  
• "Face to Face with Former Child Soldiers—and Hope:
  Messenger of Peace Michael Douglas Visits Sierra Leone"
  by Yvonne Acosta, Coordinator, UN Messenger of Peace Programme
  
  
• "'What's Going On?':
  United Nations Screens TV Series Illuminating Worldwide Child Issues"
  by Darrell Dela Rosa

• "Can Sources of Small Arms and Light Weapons Be Traced?"
  by Jenö C. A. Staehelin, Permanent Observer of the Permanent Observer Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations

These stories and more can be found at UN Chronicle Online at www.un.org/chronicle.

The UN Chronicle print edition is published by the United Nations Department of Public Information in English and French, and co-published in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. It is not an official record; the views expressed in individual articles do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

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