Control Arms Campaign by Oxfam, Amnesty and IANSA 12:40am 3rd May, 2006   Geneva, May 31 (Reuters)    U.N., Swiss call small-arms meet, U.S. not invited.    The United Nations and the Swiss government said on Wednesday they were calling a high-level international meeting next week on armed violence and development -- but the United States was not invited.    The gathering of ministers and senior representatives from some 48 countries aims to launch a world-wide effort to cut the gun crime and conflict hitting the economies of poorer nations, U.N. and Swiss officials told a news conference.    "Where armed violence persists, human development suffers," said a statement on the meeting, to be held in Geneva on June 7. It is due to issue a declaration committing signatory governments to concrete actions on reducing gun use.    Swiss Foreign Ministry envoy Thomas Greminger said the gathering would follow up on the U.N. General Assembly adoption last December of an international agreement on marking and tracing of small arms and light weapons.    "But in order to establish clearly on the international agenda the link between security and development, it needs the strong political will of a community of states," he said.    The aim would be to tackle the control and perhaps collection of light weapons that have been left in a community after a larger conflict, as well as dealing with the social conditions that drive people to acquire guns.    Peter Bachelor of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) said the Geneva meeting would build on a decision by the 31-member OECD rich-country grouping last year that overseas development aid could be used for violence prevention.    But the United States -- which has backed U.N. efforts to control the global trade in illicit weaponry but had stood aloof from other recent arms control pacts including one on land mines -- was not on the list of invitees, he told the news conference.    Invitations had gone out, he said, "to all those countries very committed to addressing this issue." "But," he added, "I think ultimately that is why the United States is not invited -- it has to be countries that have shown a commitment on these issues ... We want to create this dynamic core group that can take this issue forward."    Lack of controls on the arms trade is fuelling conflict, poverty and human rights abuses worldwide. Every government is responsible. The Control Arms campaign is asking governments to toughen up controls on the arms trade.    Today, millions of people around the world are living in fear of armed violence. They have good reason to be afraid. Most victims of armed violence are not uniformed soldiers, nor even fighters, but ordinary men, women and children.    And from the slums of Rio to the bloody conflict in the Congo, the most common weapon used to kill, maim, rape and terrorise innocent people is the gun.    Yet, unlike weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of guns, and other conventional arms, is dangerously unregulated.    The right of countries to national defence is clear. But countries also have a responsibility to make sure that arms they buy or sell are not used to commit human rights abuses or to undermine development.    In 2006, the world can make the first step towards bringing the arms trade under control, by starting negotiations on an international Arms Trade Treaty.    This treaty would ban all arms sales where there is a clear risk that those weapons will be used to break international law.    What we are calling for is not revolutionary. It simply consolidates countries existing and emerging obligations under international law into a universal standard for arms sales. But it has the power to save hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. Over 46 countries have already given their support.    "In 100 days time, UN member states will meet in New York for the second world conference on small arms. We call on all governments to champion global controls on the small arms trade at that meeting."    If this is achieved, negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty could start later this year. If it is not, irresponsible arms sales will continue to fuel suffering and poverty around the world.    The Million Faces petition is collecting photos and self portraits from around the world to reach our goal of one million faces by June 2006. We will use these faces to send a powerful, global message of support to the world"s governments for an International Arms Trade Treaty.    In the run up to the UN Review Conference on Small Arms this summer, our campaign is escalating and at the moment we have campaigning events going on in over 80 countries around the world. At the heart of our campaign, the Million Faces Petition is now standing at over 950,000 people, and behind the scenes we are lobbying hard, with 46 governments now on board in support of an Arms Trade Treaty.    Be one in a million. Join us today.    10 May 2006    Growing network of arms brokers and transporters fuelling killings, rape, and torture.    Chronically weak and outdated arms controls urgently need strengthening to stop an ever-expanding chain of arms brokers, logistic firms and transporters from fuelling massive human rights abuse around the world, according to a new report issued today.    The report from Amnesty International and TransArms shows how increasingly sophisticated freight transport and brokering operations now deliver hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons around the world with an ever-greater proportion going to developing countries where they have fed some of the most brutal of conflicts.    The report, Dead on Time - arms transportation, brokering and the threat to human rights,reveals the involvement of arms brokers and transporters from the Balkans, China, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and the USA. It also shows how this network of middlemen has made it easier for the major arms suppliers to target developing countries, which now absorb over two-thirds of world defence imports, compared to just over half in the 1990s.    "Arms brokers and transport agents have helped deliver many of the weapons used in the ongoing killing, rape and displacement of civilians in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yet customs controls are often weak and, even now, only about 35 states have bothered to enact arms brokerage laws, making further human rights catastrophes all but inevitable," said Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s research manager for the arms and security trade.    Amnesty International’s report illustrates the unregulated, secretive and unaccountable nature of many arms transporting and brokering operations with a series of case studies including:    Hundreds of thousands of weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition from Bosnia and Herzegovina''''s war-time stockpiles exported clandestinely under the auspices of the US Department of Defense; the shipments, supposedly to Iraq, used a chain of private brokers and transport contractors including an air cargo company that violated a UN arms embargo on Liberia;    A huge shipment by a Dutch-UK firm of ammunition and explosives from a Brazilian manufacturer to Saudi Arabia and Mauritius seized by South African authorities because it had no transhipment licence; Brazil authorised the arms export despite the pattern of grave human rights violations committed in Saudi Arabia;    The sea freighting of large quantities of arms to Liberia from China by a Dutch arms broker in contravention of a UN arms embargo on Liberia and despite evidence of the widespread killing, rape and displacement of thousands of civilians.    The report also highlights a number of cases where the services of private contractors who have been involved in illegal arms shipments have also been employed to support UN peacekeeping missions and deliveries of humanitarian aid at tax-payers'''' expense.    "It is clear that the existing patchwork of regulations are completely failing to keep pace with the expanding number and reach of international brokers, logistic firms and transporters. Such intermediaries may ensure that shipments of arms around the world arrive dead on time, but all to often they are used for the killing, rape, torture and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people," said Sergio Finardi of TransArms.    In its report, Amnesty International also makes a series of recommendations for robust and strictly enforced arms controls based on consistent international laws including:    Immediate establishment of specific national laws, regulations and administrative procedures to prevent arms brokering, logistics and transport activities contributing to gross human rights violations;    Development of an international protocol to regulate arms brokering and transport agents according to a common set of ethical standards set out in a global arms trade treaty;    Making violations of UN arms embargoes a criminal offence in all states and in the case of serious violations, a crime with universal jurisdiction;    Stepping up international donor aid to enhance customs and other law enforcement control of cargo movements.    Amnesty International coordinates the Control Arms campaign with Oxfam International and IANSA. It campaigns to reduce arms proliferation and misuse in over 100 countries. Email Oxfam, Amnesty and IANSA Visit the related web page
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