Nothing to Report: The Lost Promise of the UN Register of Conventional Arms

Abstract

This essay examines recent developments in UN Register of Conventional Arms and their implications for the norm of transparency in international arms transfers. It focuses in particular upon data made available in national reports to the Register for years 2005–2008 and the outcome of the 2009 meetings of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on the ‘continuing operation of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and its further development’. The paper notes that the norm of transparency in international arms transfers is not under serious threat despite the decline in reporting to the Register. It also suggests that despite some positive developments in 2003 and 2006 with regard to the prospects of expanding the Register's scope, and in the process increasing its relevance, the 2009 GGE was unable to recommend the creation of a new category in the Register for reporting international transfers of small arms and light weapons.