Armed violence affected countries demand more support

  By Daniel Mack,  Instituto Sou da Paz, Brazil

 

The Informal Small arms meeting in Geneva, which finished on Friday, allowed for a real dialogue between states and civil society.  It was invigorating to see the importance states gave to cooperation and assistance programs for the implementation of Small Arms and Light weapons projects worldwide. Money, training and learning from what others are doing, were some of the support demanded by countries affected by armed violence.

The delegate from Mexico noted that not only countries affected by armed conflicts or in post-conflict situations need support from northern states.  There are many other countries where the homicide rates are higher than those in war-ridden countries. In Brazil, my country, every year there are more than 35,000 gun-related deaths.  It is difficult to deem these countries’ problems less urgent or relevant.

Countries like Brazil can also play a constructive role by sharing experience and lessons learned on dealing with armed violence with regional neighbors. An important example of such activities is the Mercosur Working Group on Arms, in which South American countries come together in meetings involving diplomats, military, police forces, operational professionals (such as border or custom officials) and civil society, to share information and make the personal and institutional contacts essential for proper implementation of small arms initiatives.

As many governments rewardingly underlined the importance of civil society during the week, we consider that when devising and implementing small arms and light weapons cooperation and assistance projects, donor countries and UN agencies should include local civil society expertise and stakeholders in the process. Often times more than recipient governments and external actors, local NGOs have deep knowledge of, and essential working relationships in, the communities most affected by armed violence. In this and other ways, we hope to continue working together with governments to lessen the negative impacts of armed violence in our regions, as I consider we successfully did during our stay in Geneva.

Weapons overflow

 By Fred Lubang, Nonviolence International, Philippines

  

 It’s been a week of listening intently on the discussion among states on the issue of small arms transfer at the small arms meeting in Geneva. It occured to me, the logic is really simple – when you continuously pour water in a glass, it overflows. Or expressed in another way, ‘we just can take as much water or food and eventually we will throw up’. While we could argue, ‘yeah our body needs nourishment and so forth in order to survive we just can take as long as our body could handle it. While arms producers all over the world continuously produce and transfer these weapons to places in unbelievable pace, eventually we would be awash with weapons and eventually throw up. 

In the midst of the meeting, I recalled some memories in the recent past. I lived with weapons. I grew up with a gun under my bed and guns in our cabinets. I had my fair share of near death experience and witnessed armed violence. I saw someone shot a few feet from me. I had been threatened at gun point in many instances. In another incident, in my own home, a bullet missed my head by an inch when my brother accidentally dropped a plastic full of .45 caliber ammunition and setting off one bullet flying in every direction of the house luckily missed me and my daughter playing. I have so many tales and survived to tell those stories.  

This week, we had meetings for at least six hours a day for five straight days, I cannot imagine how many arms and ammunitions have been manufactured, shipped and transited during this time. Well that’s just about weapons, but most bothering is how many lives were lost for the last 5 days that we have been discussing small arms transfer principles?

I patiently heard bits and pieces from states on how their citizens, or in general, how people’s lives are affected by the unregulated transfer of weapons to communities undermining development and fuelling human rights violations. But much has to reverberate in the halls of the meeting, that what is being discussed is a matter of utmost importance to people who live in constant fear and whose rights have been continuously violated.  

The meeting is a good contribution towards recognition of the enormous problem and the task ahead. While states expressed much goodwill, the lack of capacity to control arms in the absence of an international mechanism in this highly globalized world should be recognized. States should not veer away from one of the reasons of its being – championing the rights of those who are weak, too poor or too disadvantaged.   

More South South cooperation needed

By Folade Mutota, Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD), Trinidad and Tobago

Canada’s Informal Meeting on Transfer Control Principles for Small Arms and Light Weapons in Geneva continues to facilitate information sharing among States on the opportunities available for cooperation and capacity building.  This is the fifth and last day, of the meeting and I’ve found it informative and timely.  I think the discussions will help all regions of the world to prepare for a successful Biennial Meeting of the UN Program of Action on Small Arms and light weapons at the UN in 2008.

Yesterday’s meeting focused entirely on States’ capacity to engage in the process of transfer controls. Peter Bachelor, UNDP, informed participants that the UNDP would soon publish a guide to establishing national commissions.  He also called for more South South cooperation in building capacity among States.  The UN Office of Disarmament Affairs’ Antònio Évora talked about the role of the relevant UN agencies in small arms transfer and outlined several measures which have been taken to support States’ efforts to build capacity.  He also encouraged States to utilize the UN Development Framework in making decisions on transfers and related matters.

Several donor countries and groups provided information on the programmes which they have in place for cooperation and gave examples on the effectiveness of these programmes to date.  Many countries suggested that there is room for more to be done in order to match resources with needs. 

I hope yesterday’s discussions allowed for more clarity about what options States have in  building their capacity to ensure they have effective control over small arms.   

Arms transfers must be based on International law

By Sauro Scarpelli, Amnesty International 

 

One of the things that I’m finding very interesting during the international meeting on transfer controls for small arms that is taking place this week in Geneva, is the openness of  the discussion. Because of the informal nature of this meeting, I think states’ representatives feel more free to make their interventions – this is a very positive way of engaging and sharing information between states and also international organizations.

This morning, Camilla Waszink from the ICRC presented a very interesting and useful document on how to apply international humanitarian law (IHL) criteria for the authorizing of arms transfers. The document also contributes to our argument that an Arms Trade Treaty must be based on the respect of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights law.

The ICRC document also gives specific indicators to be considered when assessing if an arms transfer should happen or not.  Some of these indicators are:  recipient state record of respect for IHL and the state’s capacity to ensure that the arms transferred are used in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law.  

The reaction of states delegates to ICRC presentation was interesting.   Portugal, reminded participants that the EU Code of Conduct on arms transfers ask governments to share information of denials of transfers and for information sharing between EU states. In 2005 there were 108 cases of consultation between states.

Amnesty International is planning to produce a similar document looking at the application of human rights criteria on arms transfer decisions. Adding to the work  Control Arms did two years ago on how incorporate sustainable development into these decisions – I think together these three instruments will be very powerful tools in our lobbying activities when the Group of Government Experts that will work on the Arms Trade Treaty will start working.

For more information on the Control Arms Campaign please visit:  http://www.controlarms.com

An unusually frank exchange of views!

 

By Lina Holguin, Oxfam

By Lina Holguin, Oxfam

This is my fourth day in Geneva at the Meeting on transfer control principles for small arms and light weapons.  Together with my Control Arms colleagues and other NGOs we have been attending all the sessions, meeting with states delegates to talk about specific issues and at the end of the day having our NGO lobby coordination meeting.  We have had very long days, but very enlightening indeed!

Yesterday, my day started with a meeting some of us (Saferworld, Amnesty, Oxfam) had with the Vice-minister of Colombia, Camilo Reyes.  We talked about Colombia’s efforts in fighting the illegal small arms trade and about cooperation between states and non-governmental organizations to achieve tougher arms transfer controls.  The rest of the day I was in the room witnessing very rich exchanges between states.

The Canadian government, the meeting organizer, is looking for an unusually frank exchange of views, between states, international organizations and NGOs, on lessons learned and best practices, but without making specific criticisms or pointing fingers at any country.  All of this is happening!

On Tuesday, Clare da Silva the legal adviser to the NGOs and a consultant to Amnesty International outlined state obligations under relevant international law and it was evident that this was much needed by the participants. Several governments including the Russian Federation said they make efforts to ensure respect of UN arms embargoes, human rights and other key factors. 

Yesterday afternoon, Ken Epps, from Project Ploughshares, talked to participants about processes states undertake to authorize small arms transfers. Vice-Minister, Camilo Reyes intervened and invited other states to work in partnership with NGOs and use the expertise and experiences that we have.  He said that governments are sometimes slow and bureaucratic and that NGOs can contribute by highlighting examples of how different countries are dealing with diversion of arms – arms ending up in hands they are not supposed to and resulting in crimes.

One of the strong arguments coming out consistently from states from Latin America and Africa is the need for ‘Northern’ countries to support them in their efforts to bring in tighter controls. A delegate from Nicaragua went further in calling on all exporters to commit to increase the involvement of importing states in decisions around whether or not to transfer weapons – an issue that is being raised by a number of states.

It was very encouraging to listen to southern countries talking directly to the big arms exporting countries about what they consider needs to happen to effectively regulate the arms trade. A few years ago, when we started campaigning on the arms trade, it was hard to imagine having over 100 countries discussing together the need for greater international controls. We have a long way to go, and this meeting is more about sharing information than making decisions, but it is really positive that the voices from my region, South America, where so many lives are destroyed by armed violence, are being heard.

Today’s discussions are about to start, I just watched the video from Control Arms in Haiti (which you can see also in this website). It contains testimonies from victims of armed violence.  I hope that all the talk that is happening in this meeting will not stay in this conference room and that it will lead to real action that will contribute stop the horrific things that happen to the people that appear in the Haiti video.  We shall see…

For more information on Control Arms campaign visit:  www.controlarms.com
 

Control arms campaigners are back!

By Lina Holguin, Oxfam. 

Once more Control Arms – Oxfam, Amnesty and IANSA – campaigners are present at a key international meeting on arms and I am very glad to be one of them.  From August 27 to 31, we will be in Geneva taken part on the Informal Meeting on Transfer Control Principles for Small Arms and Light Weapons, organized by the Canadian government.  

111 States, 5 UN agencies, and 24 human rights, development, disarmament and other non-governmental organizations – nearly 400 individuals in total- will be this week at the International Conference Center to discussing global standards for transfer controls of small arms and light weapons. This meeting provides a great opportunity for States to share information and learn from each other about how they are avoiding or intending to avoid arms exports/transfers falling in the wrong hands.  But above all, it gives the states’ representatives the chance to raise their voices in favor of rules that all countries should respect when selling arms.   

Sitting in this big, formal conference room, I am thinking of the thousands of  people in my country Colombia who live in fear of armed violence;  of the many women, girls, boys that have been raped at gunpoint around the world, of the millions of people who have been forced to abandon their homes due to conflict, I am thinking of the girls and boys that are holding a gun instead of a pencil….I hope all the men and women  who are representing their countries  at this meeting  will also have in their minds the victims of armed violence.   

Yesterday, several states and regional organizations (like the European Union,) spoke of their efforts to fight the illegal arms trade.  But we also heard the Deputy Foreign Minister of Liberia saying that in spite of some national and regional efforts, arms from big exporting countries are still flooding his country as well as many others in Africa. I was glad when he brought this up. He was making the case for the need to deal with the loop-holes in existing regulations and for the need of Global principles for arms transfers. The NGOs were given the platform and Brian Wood from Amnesty International outlined our proposals for global principles to govern international transfers of arms. (See our global principles booklet).

Today Clare da Silva our NGO legal adviser will present relevant principles of international law. Our overall aim in the Control Arms Campaign is for states to agree on an international Arms Trade treaty (ATT).  

If a great number of states here support the idea that states need tougher control for arms transfers and that everybody should play under the same rules (Global principles), this will hopefully  increase the possibility of saving many lives.     

Find out how you can support the control arms campaign visit www.controlarms.org

Control Arms goes to Geneva

The Control Arms team is on it’s way to the Conference on Small Arms Transfers in Geneva. We will be there to represent the views and stories of Control Arms campaign supporters, as well as, people who have been affected by small arms and weapons violence.

This meeting is very important step on the way to achieveing an international Arms Trade Treaty and we will be blogging back reguraly to tell you how it is going.

If you would like to support the campaign, visit www.controlarms.org and add your name to the call for an international Arms Trade Treaty.