CALL FOR STRICTER SMALL ARMS TRADE CONTROLS

Toronto Conference executive passed a resolution presented by the Peace and Justice Working Group in May, 2004 calling on individuals and congregations to encourage our government and the international community to impose stricter controls on small arms and trade, through:

• deepening our understanding of the impact of the proliferation and misuse of conventional arms on peoples around the world;

• meeting with elected representatives to call for parliamentary support for stricter Canadian export controls and an international arms trade treaty;

• supporting Project Ploughshares' programme work, particularly their work on controlling the arms trade, and draw on its expertise and resources;

• participating in the Million Faces photo petition of the international Control Arms campaign supported by Project Ploughshares, Oxfam and Amnesty International.    

• For the full text of the resolution, see www.torontoconference.ca or call the Conference office 1800 446 4729.

  DID YOU KNOW:

  • Small arms and light weapons (‘small arms’) are designed for personal use; light weapons are designed for use by several people serving as a crew.  Small arms include revolvers and self-loading pistols; rifles and carbines; sub-machine guns; assault rifles; and light machine guns. Light weapons include heavy machine guns; grenade launchers; portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns; recoilless rifles; portable launchers of anti-tank missiles, rocket systems, and anti-aircraft missile systems; mortars of calibers of less than 100mm; ammunition, shells, and missiles for all the above; grenades; landmines; and explosives. (UNDP 2002: 10)

  • The arms trade is not subject to any international treaty.

  • It is estimated that there are at least 600 million small arms in circulation – one for every 10 people on the planet.

  • Each week10,000 people die from small arms and light weapons – one death per minute.

  • Canada is a major supplier of military goods, other than small arms. Canada ranked 13^th in the world in 2002 in Global Suppliers of Major Conventional Weapons and the top supplier to the United States (source: Press for Conversion, #52, Oct 03). This industry is funded in part by the Canada Pension Plan and government grants.

  • The United Nations Charter in Article 26 calls on all governments to commit to the pursuit of peace and security with the least possible resort to lethal military force.

  • The World Council of Churches (www.wcc-coe.ord) 1998 report Small Arms, Big Impact calls on churches to play a role in campaigns to control and reduce small arms.

  • The 58^th session of the UN General Assembly (2003) established a working group to negotiate an international instrument to enable States to identify and trace illicit small arms and light weapons, and to convene a UN conference in mid 2006 to review progress five years after adoption of the Program of Action on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. (Disarmament Times Winter 2004)

  • In post-conflict environments the proliferation and misuse of small arms among civilian populations pose many obstacles to post-conflict reconstruction. There are links between violence, insecurity, fear and poverty which fuel small arms misuse. Therefore voluntary weapons collection programs must incorporate security sector reform, sustainable development and the promotion of cultures of peace. (Moira Goodfellow, 53^rd Pugwash Conference).

• WHAT YOU CAN DO:

  • Participate in the international programme to end the unregulated transfer of arms. For information on the Control Arms campaign, including the Million Faces photo petition, see the campaign document Shattered Lives: The Case for Tough International Arms Controls and the Control Arms website (www.controlarms.org).

  • Participate in Project Ploughshares programme work on controlling the arms trade – they have been involved since 1976 (www.ploughshares.ca).

  • Link learnings from the To Seek Justice and Resist Evil: Towards an Economy for All God’s People (www.united-church.ca) and Kairos’ Just Peace campaign (www.kairoscanada.org) to the small arms trade.

  • Focus on the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (www.torontoconference.ca and www.wcc-coe.org).

  • Write the Ministry of National Defence urging the Government of Canada to uphold and strengthen its international arms control commitments and to work to bolster United Nations member states’ commitment to the UN small arms process, including an international arms trade treaty.

  • Meet with your MP to discuss the need to regulate the arms trade.

• Sample Letter

  The Hon. Bill Graham, MP, Minister of National Defence,

  House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6

  Dear Minister Graham,

  As a member of The United Church of Canada I am very concerned about the proliferation of small arms around the globe. Our members have recently passed a resolution addressing this issue. We hope that you in your position of Minister of Defence will act to reduce this growing problem. It is estimated half a million people die each year, 300,000 in armed conflict and 200,000 from homicides and suicides.

   We note that the 58^th United Nations General Assembly established an open-ended working group to negotiate an international instrument to enable States to identify and trace illicit small arms and light weapons. There will be a UN conference in New York June-July 2006 to review the progress since the adoption of the Program of Action on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. An international treaty is needed.

  We would request your full cooperation in this effort and in the preparatory meetings set for January 2006. Since women and children are the main victims, and since Canada agreed to UN Resolution 1325 mandating a decisive role for women in peace negotiations, I suggest that women be included in Canada’s representation to these meetings.

   It is important that Canada come to the meetings with no involvement in the manufacture or trade, legal or illegal, in these weapons. We stopped making landmines, surely we can stop whatever role we have in this menace which is interfering with the delivery of humanitarian aid, violence reduction and alleviation of poverty.

  We respectfully ask for a response to our concerns.

  cc:  your member of Parliament

   Prime Minister Paul Martin

  International action on the arms trade – Canadian organizations join 3-year program
  
  The long-standing efforts of a global network of non-governmental organizations to control the arms trade will get a boost today from the launch of a 3-year program that seeks to end the unregulated transfer of arms.  ‘Control Arms’ is backed by Amnesty International, Oxfam GB, and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and seeks government support for an International Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to control the supply of weapons and also calls on governments to provide community-level safety to reduce the demand for arms. 
  
  The total value of the global, annual transfers of arms is over $25 billion (US), of which 2/3 goes to developing countries. The five major suppliers – the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China – also the permanent members of the UN Security Council, account for 80 percent of all arms supplies. Yet, at present, there are no internationally agreed controls on the arms trade.
  
  These unregulated arms transfers exacerbate armed conflict and inflict extraordinary suffering on populations around the globe. More than three-dozen ongoing wars are fuelled by these irresponsible weapons sales. The uncontrolled proliferation and misuse of arms also leads to greater social and economic inequalities.  Sustainable development can be undermined as high costs of major weapon systems add to the debt load of poorer nations or displace funding for education, health or other social programs. 
  
  Although small arms and light weapons make up a small proportion in trade in terms of their dollar value, they have a disproportionate and devastating impact on human safety and security. According to statistics gathered by the Small Arms Survey, Geneva, there are over 600 million small arms in circulation around the world – one for every 10 people on the planet, and over 500,000 people a year are killed by these weapons – that is, one death every minute. 
  
  The problem is not restricted to war zones.  Amnesty International has documented persistent serious human rights violations such as unlawful killings, abduction, rape and torture by state security forces in a third of all countries. The easy availability of arms also fuels violent crime and increases the lethality of disputes and domestic violence. Many of the weapons and ammunition used to commit such crimes were obtained through legal international arms transfers – arms transfers that should have been stopped.
  
  Greater controls over the export and transfer of these arms, as well as over their domestic production, sale and use are desperately needed. The time is ripe for action. Since the Cold War, the arms trade has declined and further reduction is achievable but steps must be taken immediately as there is a danger of these efforts being eroded as governments, particularly the major suppliers like the United States and Russia, forego restraint and begin accelerating their search for security and control through the supply of arms.
  
  In 1997, a group of Nobel Peace Laureates called on all states to abide by a restrictive code of conduct on arms transfers drawing on existing international law. This spawned a coalition of non-governmental organizations including, Project Ploughshares, Amnesty International, and Oxfam, who drafted an International Arms Trade Treaty based on the principles laid out by the Peace Laureates. The ATT calls on governments to ban the transfer of arms that would likely be used to violate key obligations under existing international law, especially human rights and humanitarian law. The 2001 UN Conference on small arms also called on states to limit their arms exports in accordance with their international obligations.   The ATT would also require exporting states to avoid the sale of weapons that could have an adverse impact on sustainable development or regional peace and security. 
  
  The first UN conference on the illicit trade in small arms [in all its aspects] in 2001 produced an agreed to follow-up process the ‘Programme of Action’ (PoA).  The PoA mandates all UN members states to work at dealing with the problems caused by the proliferation and misuse of small arms at the national, regional and international levels, and in cooperation with civil society. It also affirms that states arms export criteria should be subject to existing human rights and humanitarian law.
  
  The three-year ‘Control Arms’ program seeks to contribute to these and the on-going efforts of civil society world-wide, and is intended to gain governmental, donor and civil society support for the ATT, and community-based initiatives, including community policing, gun-free zones, alternative livelihoods, weapons collection and gun destruction programmes that deal with the demand side of the problem.
  
  There is a group of like-minded states, including key EU members and Canada, that is supportive of efforts to establish clear international principles and universal standards, including the Arms Trade Treaty, to control arms transfers, and has been cooperative in respect to working with civil society in their efforts to confront this problem.
  
  However, in addition to the development of international law to govern transfers, individual states also need to strengthen their national export controls. Canada remains a significant arms exporter, most of which are supplied to the US. The lack of transparency and accountability on military sales to the United States needs to be rectified. Canada also needs to take additional care to ensure that Canadian military goods do not go to countries identified as violating existing human rights and humanitarian laws.
  
  The on-going work of organizations here in Canada can be supported by new initiatives such as the ‘Control Arms’ program provides, which provides further opportunities to raise public awareness, and engage relevant government officials to make sure that existing mechanisms of control are upheld, and stronger controls are implemented in the future. 
  
  In Canada, Project Ploughshares, an ecumenical peace centre of the Canadian Council of Churches, has been addressing arms trade concerns since its founding in 1976.  There are also over 80 Canadian NGOs and individuals that are part of a small arms action network, the Small Arms Working Group of the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee, coordinated by Project Ploughshares, that have been working on the issue for a number of years. A co-founder of IANSA, Ploughshares will act as the contact agency in Canada, along with Amnesty International Canada (English speaking) and Oxfam Canada.
  
  For further details contact: Mark Fried, Oxfam Canada 613-850-9723
  Ken Epps, Project Ploughshares 519-888-6541 ext 701
  
  Further campaign details can be found at:
  www.controlarms.org
  
  For information regarding recent Canadian arms exports and policies visit:
  www.ploughshares.ca/content/MONITOR/monj03f.html