Nobel Women's Initiative

 

 

"Thousands of people are killed, injured, raped, and forced to flee from their homes as a result of the unregulated global arms trade. The Control Arms Campaign is calling for an international, legally-binding Arms Trade Treaty to ease the suffering caused by irresponsible weapons transfers." - Control Arms, a joint initiative of Oxfam, IANSA and Amnesty International

 

What is the Problem?

• Roughly half a million men, women, and children are killed by armed violence every year - that is one person every minute.

• There are more than 630 million small arms (handguns and firearms) and light weapons in the world today, and every year eight million more are produced.

Despite technological advancements that have transformed warfare into a biological, chemical, and nuclear assault on civilians and soldiers alike, conventional weapons are still the dominant killing-machines. Small or light arms remain the most common weapons used against both military and non-military victims.

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THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF SMALL ARMS

The International Action Network on Small Arm's (IANSA) Women's Network reminds us that guns affect women and men differently. "It is overwhelmingly men who buy, sell, and use small arms around the world, while women are victimised to a disproportionate degree. Women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence at the barrel of a gun. Guns also affect women and girls when they are not directly in the firing line. They are disproportionately affected by the damage to health, education and other social services caused by armed violence."

The movement to address small arms isn't just about ending armed violence. The issue of arms sales is also closely connected to global poverty and inequality. According to Control Arms, from 1998 to 2001, the United States, United Kingdom, and France earned more income from arms sales to developing countries than they gave in aid. Along with Russia and China, they are responsible for 88 percent of reported conventional arms exports.

Nearly 90 percent of the world's top arms-selling governments have no system in place to assess whether a particular arms sale is likely to increase poverty or undermine security, despite signing agreements obligating them to do so

Article 26 of the United Nations Charter requires member states to "promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources." This means states are required to use their resources to benefit people's economic and social progress, not for more armaments. Instead, too many states are diverting scarce resources from people's social and economic needs to building over-sized arsenals unnecessary for truly protecting their citizens. What keeps people secure is sufficient food, water, health care and education- not stockpiles of weapons.

This is the idea of "people-centered security," rather than the security of the nation state. Crime and war are certainly examples of violence that destabilize the security of people; but their security is also affected by deprivation and fear whether it is the result of gender violence, poverty, environmental pollution, disease, illiteracy or all of these combined. Real security can only come when people are free of both direct and indirect violence.

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The Arms Trade Treaty- regulating the international transfer of arms

Today, the arms industry is largely unregulated and the majority of weapons are trafficked illegally. The countries most affected are those trapped in, or just emerging from, internal and civil conflicts. According to Control Arms, Without strict control, such weapons will continue to fuel violent conflict, state repression, crime, and domestic abuse. Unless governments act to stop the spread of arms, more lives will be lost, more human rights violations will take place, and more people will be denied the chance to escape poverty.

The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), an initiative of Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias, would establish a set of universal standards to guide the trade in arms because existing regulations are not enough. We need an explicit agreement that makes clear the international responsibilities of weapons transfers. In December 2006, 153 governments agreed to begin work on developing an international Arms Trade Treaty.

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CITIZENS HAVE POWER

The responsibility for controlling and eventually terminating the production and proliferation of small arms lies with governments. But citizens have the power to bring these issues to governments' attention and to demand they respect their obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and other international instruments. Learn what you can do to support the Arms Trade Treaty here.

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For more information visit:

• Control Arms Campaign
  
• International Action Network on Small Arms
  

• Members of the IANSA Women's Network are Women are taking a leading role in gun control efforts all over the world. We invite you to learn more about them at IANSA's Women Portal.

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