Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security : The Security Council to Legislate to Regulate the Arms Trade

The thesis seeks to re-make the case for a comprehensive international regulatory regime to tame the de-stabilizing effects of proliferation of small arms and light weapons, made possible through the illicit global arms trade. It analysis what role the Security Council ought to play with regards to the illicit global arms trade since the Council has the ‘primary responsibility’ in the maintenance of international peace and security. The study provides an overview of the arms trade and its human cost as well as the powers, functions and practices of the United Nations Security Council. It argues that the unregulated global arms trade is a threat to international peace and security and therefore calls on the Security Council to determine it as such. It further calls on the Security Council to make legislation akin to resolutions 1373 and 1540, this time, to counter the threats pose by the illicit arms trade to ‘the peace’.