09 October 2005
 Happy
Birthday!! The Control Arms campaign has made some
huge strides forward since its launch on 9 October
2003. Here are some of the achievements.
Control Arms has been lobbying hard for a global arms
trade treaty, and is making tremendous progress.
The latest big news is that the 25 Governments of
the European Union (EU) - which currently accounts
for 39% of global arms sales – have all pledged
their support for the Arms Trade Treaty. Click here
for more – link to press release.
Thirteen new governments also gave their support at a UN arms conference in July. 42 governments now back a global Arms Trade Treaty which is fantastic progress.
Sauro Scarpelli from Amnesty International said
"This is a great step forward and now we need these countries to promote the need of international principles on arms transfers to other governments around the world".
But the good news doesn’t stop there.
This week the Million Faces Petition reached 500,000,
which is a very important milestone. We are now halfway
there in our bid to sign 1 million people up to the
campaign.
And we are confident we can reach our target in time for next year’s key lobbying moment - the UN review conference on small arms in June 2006. Worldwide, campaigners from 67 countries are now collecting faces for the Petition.
Join the million faces petition now
Another milestone for your diaries. On 23 October 2005, Brazilians will vote in a radical referendum to decide whether the sale of guns and ammunition should be banned. The referendum is one of the most significant developments ever in the field of small arms control. It will be the first time any country in the world has put its national gun laws to a popular vote. Brazil suffers some of the world’s highest levels of gun violence - someone dies from a gunshot wound every 15 minutes. The Control Arms campaign will be joining IANSA members in Brazil to lend international solidarity to the referendum campaign and urging Brazilian voters to vote YES in the National Referendum.
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