In a report timed for a July 7-11 UN conference in New York, the two groups noted that small arms account for up to 90% of all people killed in combat.
The Berlin government was urged to stop the dissemination of German guns, including those made abroad under license if these transfers do not adhere to Germany's arms export laws.
The two groups also said that Germany's annual arms export report should also document the export of all small arms produced in Germany.
Their report did praise the German government's tightening of gun control laws aimed at restricting the private ownership of guns.
Dietrich Garlich, managing director of Unicef in Germany, said small arms like Germany's G3 or the Russian Kalashnikov were the actual weapons of mass destruction in today's wars.
"They bring death to more people than do heavy weapons systems.
And they make it possible to misuse children as soldiers," he said.
BICC - an international group, which promotes countries' efforts to convert military resources for civilian purposes – estimated that half a million people a year die from small weapons, while several million others are wounded.
Experts estimate that 639 million small arms are circulating in the world.
BICC managing director Peter Croll said that progress had been made in the European Union in the battle against illegal trade in small arms.
But he said that "above all in China, India and some Arab countries there is a lack of political will", while many developing countries lacked the practical conditions to combat the trade in small arms. – Sapa.
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