Business and International Crimes
Arms and Mines
Over the past decade the social and humanitarian problems arising from use and presence of Landmines, Explosive Remnants of War and Small Arms & Light Weapons (SALWs) have received attention from international civil society, governments and international organisations. Many of the issues have been brought forward by civil society organisations engaged in affected communities. Some have generated comprehensive international responses, such as the 1997 Anti Personell Mine Convention. Other, such as the Small Arms issue have resulted in less adequate international responses.
Research on the impact of Arms and Mines in communities, and on what might constitute relevant policy responses to the problems, is an emerging field. Ffao has been involved with this area since organising a Peace Implementation Network Forum on Microdisarmamnet in 1999. Under the New Security Program, Fafo will continue research and policy formulation activities within this area.
Mines and ERW
Mine Action and Peace Building
The peacebuilding impact of mine action programmes is substantial, but
often not fully acknowledged. By exploring existing experiences, in the
fields of both mine action and peacebuilding, Landmine Action and Fafo
AIS aim to establish a basis for developing the full peacebuilding impact
of mine action that will feed into policy and practice. By documenting
the peacebuilding impact of mine action, we aim to also provide lessons
for the peacebuilding community.
Explosive Remnants of War
The international community has been actively seeking adequate policy
responses to address the humanitarian challenges posed by explosive remnants
from wars and conflicts. The November 2003 adoption of a new protocol
to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) - to become Protocol
V on the Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) - was a step in the development
of a robust international regulatory framework for this issue. Ffao monitored
the process that led to the adoption of the new Protocol, and will continue
to follow the process taking place within the CCW in 2004, as well as
the attempts to address the problem of cluster sub-munitions, led by NGOs
and certain governments.
Small Arms and Light Weapons
European Small Arms and the perpetuation of
Violence
Small arms and light weapons1 (SALW) are the weapons of choice in the majority of armed conflicts across the globe. Violence from terrorists, rebel groups, paramilitaries, organised criminals and even state forces today poses a primary threat to international peace, human security, and economic development. The victims of this violence are predominantly located in the developing world. A research consortium led by PRIO has as its main objective to better understand the role of small arms and their influence on the perpetuation of violence.
Microdisarmament:
Policies and Practices of Small Arms and Light Weapons Disarmament
The third Forum of the Peace Implementation Network, focused on the implementation
of microdisarmament as a component of peace-building and as part of peace
support operations.
Small Arms and Foreign Direct Investment: Is there a statistical relationship?
A study commissioned by the Small Arms Survey and Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science) from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU, 2002) analysed the relationship that may exist between FDI flows and security issues resulting from the use of small arms.