The AK-47: the world's favourite killing machine

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Introduction

Kalashnikov assault rifles are the most widespread military weapons in the world. It is estimated that there are between 50 and 70 million of them spread across the world’s five continents. They are used daily by soldiers, fighters, and gang members to inflict untold suffering in many countries. The spread of these weapons continues largely unchecked by governments, threatening the lives and safety of millions as weapons fall into irresponsible hands. More than ever, the Kalashnikov rifle is the weapon of choice for many armies, militias, armed gangs, law enforcement officials, rebels, and other private actors who abuse fundamental human rights and operate beyond the international humanitarian law parameters laid down by the Geneva Conventions and other relevant international law.

Although the United Nations and its member states have taken concrete action to limit the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction through international treaties and monitoring organisations, the number one tool used for killing and injuring civilians today is small arms, including the assault rifle, which is reaching more countries than ever before. On 26 June 2006, the UN Review Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons begins in New York. At this conference, governments have an opportunity to agree effective and comprehensive controls to prevent the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons, including assault rifles like the AK-47. In October 2006, at the UN General Assembly, governments should agree to negotiate a new global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to regulate international transfers of all conventional arms, including military assault rifles.

The proliferation of Kalashnikovs has resulted in such deadly weapons being used to massacre, maim, rape and abuse, torture, and fuel violent crime in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Britain, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Mexico, Sierra Leone, the USA, Venezuela, and Yemen. With no global treaty to regulate the sale of such weapons and no international organisation to effectively monitor transfers of small arms and light weapons, Kalashnikov assault rifles are a truly global commodity now traded, warehoused, and produced in more countries than at any time in their sixty-year history.

The Kalashnikov assault rifle was designed during the Second World War and produced originally as the AK-47, for use against conventional armies by soldiers subject to military law. Since then the AK-47 has been diverted from its intended purpose and is now part of an often unregulated flow of assault weapons which has catastrophic consequences for civilian populations in the developing world.

In late 1998, rebel groups in Sierra Leone holding assault rifles repeatedly raped Fatu Kamara at gunpoint. Her husband was tortured and killed in front of her and her daughter shot in the head. The most widely used assault rifle in the atrocities carried out in Sierra Leone and Liberia was the AK-47.

Date of original publication: June 2006