On 8 March, many IANSA members showed their support for International Women’s Day.

Control Arms campaigners staged a range of events in South Africa, Cambodia, New York, Canada and Brazil to mark the launch of the report on the impact of guns on women’s lives.

In Johannesburg, South Africa, the ‘Women under Fire’ press conference as attended by members of the national and international press. Four speakers from IANSA, Amnesty International and Oxfam spoke briefly about how, in a world awash with weapons, women are often the silent victims of armed violence. The occasion gave representatives from southern African civil society a chance to hear about the report and talk to people who had worked directly with armed violence in South Africa. Speakers included Rachel Jewkes of the South Africa Medical Research Council, Kaelo Khumalo of the Ceasefire Campaign. South African television stars and musicians also gathered to promote Women under Fire in Johannesburg’s Rosebank Mall. Together with musicians from the Culture and Heritage group, Pimville, Soweto, they drummed up support for the campaign by gathering handprints and photos from the public. In Cambodia, the Working Group for Weapons Reduction hosted major public discussions in both Phnom Penh and Kampong Cham districts aimed at increasing awareness among Cambodian women on gun related issues.

The public discussion in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, brought together 130 women from government institutions, security fields, media, university students and teachers, as well as representatives from civil society organisations. In Kampong Cham, some 50 female villagers and local authorities attended the discussion.

Across the world in Montréal, Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Amnesty and Women's Quebec Federation organised a press conference to introduce the report. Danielle Hébert from Fédération des femmes du Québec, Johanne Létourneau from Oxfam-Québec and Gilles Sabourin Amnesty international spoke at the conference. Meanwhile in downtown Montreal, Control Arms volunteers collected hundreds of photos for the Million Faces petition, helped by celebrities who turned out to support the event.

In São Paulo, Brazil, Instituto Sou da Paz mobilized volunteers to participate in the March for Women. The Paulista Avenue, one of the busiest streets in downtown, was temporally closed off for the march that drew more than 30,000 women from all over Brazil. During the event Sou da Paz announced the launch of the Women under Fire report. Volunteers gathered in the Peace and Solidarity section of the march, carrying banners to show Brazilian women’s desire for disarmament and the end to violence against women. Before and after the March, volunteers were able to talk to people about the Control Arms campaign and took photos for the million faces petition.

Meanwhile, in New York, Control Arms held a discussion as part of the Beijing +10 United Nations conference on women’s rights. A line-up of key speakers from Amnesty International, IANSA and Oxfam spoke on issues of arms control and women. Later, women from around the world gave their accounts of gun proliferation and violence against women, sharing experiences from Nepal, Liberia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, the Caribbean and Uganda.

The Spanish Control Arms coalition also marked the launch of the new campaign with a press conference. Members of the press heard China Keitetsi from Uganda, talk about her experiences as a former girl child soldier while Leonor Watling, a famous Spanish actress read from case studies taken from the Women Under Fire report.

In Misri Banda, Pakistan, Blue Veins organised a seminar in collaboration with the Astogna Community Citizen Board.