A new Amnesty International report published to coincide with the start of the first ever UN Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons (9th to 20th July), demonstrates that governments and opposition groups in at least 100 countries around the world are using small arms in the violent abuse of human rights. Despite the extent of this abuse, some governments are deliberately attempting to exclude reference to obligatory human rights standards from the Program of Action to be agreed at the UN Conference, seeking to remove any ethical and legally binding dimension to controlling the transfer of small arms.