9 - The Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

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Law and Security in Nigeria
weapon gives its holder the power to coerce, small arms
are often used in a wide range of crimes which have no
connection with conflicts, such as rape, robbery, kidnappings,
and general gangsterism.
In addition to the enormous human death toll and
inflictions on the human person, small arms also have
aggregated negative impacts on the socio-economic
development of entire populations, as widespread armed
violence inflicts various social and economic costs on
individuals and the state, including internal displacements of
persons, medical treatment and rehabilitation; refugee flows;
destruction of physical infrastructure; losses in productivity
and foreign investment; general disruption of economic,
social, civic and political activities. 22
SALW are also employed in widespread and systematic
human rights violations. The ineffective regulation and
misuse of SALW has human rights implications that affect
the gamut of fundamental human rights and freedoms of the
victims both individually and collectively. These are rights
that have been codified in international and regional treaties,
including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 23 the
two human rights Covenants, 24 many thematic treaties, 25 the
Light Weapons: the Tools Used to Violate Human Rights”, presented at the
Disarmament Forum on Human Rights, Human Security and Disarmament,
UNIDIR, 2004. (Frey: “SALW, the Tools Used”), p 37, citing WHO,
Small Arms and Global Health, (Geneva: WHO, 2001), being a study of 52
high and middle-income countries showing that more than 115,000 people
died in those countries from firearm injuries in a one-year period in the
mid-1990s, including 79,000 homicides, 29,000 suicides and 7,000
accidents or undetermined.
22. Small Arms Survey 2006: Unfinished Business, (Oxford University Press,
2006), chapter 8, at:
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/sas/publications/yearb2006.html.
23. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217A (III), United Nations
document A/810 at 71 (1948) (hereafter UNDHR).
24. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), United
Nations General Assembly Resolution 2200 (XXI), United Nations
document A/6316 (1966), entered into force 23 March 1976 and the