UN Small Arms Conference Starts
Kofi Annan received the Million Faces petition at the start of the Review Conference,
delivered by Julius Arile, the millionth signature, and the international directors of Amnesty, IANSA and Oxfam.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan received the Million Faces petition on 26 June at the start of a global small arm meeting. The world's largest photo petition supported the Control Arms campaign for tough international controls on the arms trade.
The UN Small Arms Review Conference (26 June to 7 July, New York, US) is a vitally important global meeting for preventing gun violence. The full costs of gun violence – injuries, lost earnings, disrupted economies - far outweigh the size of the trade in small arms and light weapons. As well as controlling the flow of guns, governments must provide assistance to the survivors of gun violence.
For example, every year, small arms violence leads to productivity losses that amount to USD 10 billion in Brazil and USD 4 billion in Colombia. This is new data from the Small Arms Survey yearbook, released at the Review Conference. These annual costs greatly outweigh the estimated USD 4 billion annual legal trade in small arms.
A failure to act at this meeting means another 1.8 million people will die at gunpoint by the time the UN next meets to discuss small arms in five years time.
Click here for the official website.
|
