IANSA Update 3 April 2009

Guatemala: New firearms law passed
Israel-Gaza: Ship offloads US munitions near Gaza border
Russia: Export controls on small arms weakened
Togo: Regional meeting on ATT
Other news: Armed attack on Pakistan police academy; Conference in Brazil on masculinities; Book on India and the ATT; Protest outside German gun company

Guatemala: New firearms law passed
IANSA members in Guatemala are celebrating the passage through Congress of the new Weapons and Ammunition Control Act on 31 March. The new law, to be signed by the President on 15 April, is a major victory for campaigners against gun violence. Most significant is a fundamental shift of legal authority: the regulation of firearms will move from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Interior. Background checks for licenses become more stringent, and owners must now present their guns when renewing their licence, to stop weapons being diverted to non-licensed users. After 3 annual renewals, a 3-year licence may be granted. All sales will be recorded and transmitted electronically to the central register. Read more here.

Israel-Gaza: Ship offloads US munitions near Gaza border
A huge consignment of US munitions reached its intended destination of Ashdod in Israel on 22 March. The German cargo ship the Wehr Elbe left the USA on 20 December carrying 989 containers of munitions. Attacks by the Israeli armed forces on Gaza started just days later. The ship's path was temporarily delayed when it was unable to dock at the Greek port of Navipe-Astakos due to a protest by the Greek Stop the War Coalition. Around 1300 Palestinians were killed in the 3-week long attacks on Gaza, including nearly 300 children. Amnesty International has condemned the ship's delivery, saying that it should have been halted by the Obama administration, given the strength of evidence that military equipment of this kind had recently been used by the Israeli forces to commit war crimes. Read more here.

Russia: Export controls on small arms weakened
The Russian arms export authority, the Rosoboronexport, has announced a weakening of its end user certification process on small arms exports. Previously, a formal two stage end-use checking procedure was in place for 12 categories of arms exports, including revolvers, pistols, machineguns and antitank guns. This required both an End-user Certificate and a Proper Use Certificate, which confirmed that weapons would only be used for their intended purposes. Under the new proposals, some of these weapons, including pistols, revolvers and rifles, will now only require a single End User Certificate. IANSA member Vadim Kozyulin said: "In reality, the Proper Use Certificate was not always implemented because there was no provision in international law to permit on-the-spot inspection. Onsite inspection would be a useful concept for Russia to bring to the ongoing discussions on the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations."

Togo: Regional meeting on ATT
IANSA and WAANSA are hosting a regional campaign workshop in Lome, Togo from 15-16 April. The workshop, which is being organised in cooperation with the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), will present opportunities to learn more about the discussions at the United Nations, to share experiences from other civil society organisations in the West and Central Africa region, and to develop strategies for future campaigning on an ATT. Please email Joseph.Dube@iansa.org for further details.

Other news

• At least 18 people were shot dead and up to 100 were injured after Taliban gunmen stormed the Manawan police academy in Lahore, Pakistan on 30 March. The gun battle between the armed group and the police raged for 8 hours. The Pakistani warlord Baitullah Mehsud has claimed responsibility for the attack. Read more here.
• IANSA members, including Women's Network Coordinator Sarah Masters, were in Rio de Janeiro this week to participate in an international conference on 'Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality'. The WN presented a paper 'Men, masculinity and guns: can we break the link?' exploring how constructions of masculinities work to legitimate and perpetuate gun violence. Read more here and here.
• CAFI (Control Arms Foundation India) will launch its new publication 'India and Arms Trade Treaty: Making Disarmament Meaningful to People's Lives,' on 17 April at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Contributors to the book include scholars, civil society, parliamentarians and former military personnel. Read more here.
  
• German and British activists joined forces at a demonstration outside gun manufacturer Heckler & Koch's headquarters in Oberndorf am Neckar (Germany) on 7 March. The demonstration was a protest against the arms company's 60th anniversary. Read more here.
  
  

Please send your stories on developments in small arms from around the world to louise.rimmer@iansa.org

Join the IANSA Women's Network: email women@iansa.org

Join the Million Faces petition in support of a global Arms Trade Treaty