UN SMALL ARMS CONFERENCE SEEKS GLOBAL REGULATIONS
ACTION TO REGULATE SMALL ARMS TRADE SEEKS TO END PROLIFERATION, CURB RANDOM VIOLENCE, ACTS OF OPPRESSION
1 July 2006

The United Nations conference on light weapons proliferation is facing a burgeoning black market trade which spreads new and used small arms around the globe, fueling civil wars and organized crime. Recent months have seen a number of reports urging governments to tackle the problem; in May, the rights group Amnesty International reported the illicit trade was "out of control", fueled by an "opaque chain" of private interests.

The United Nations is hosting the conference in response to calls from rights groups and governments to tackle the problem which in some regions has reached crisis proportions. Black market traders and even permitted, if questionable, arms brokerages, have assisted in spreading small arms to remote corners of the world, sometimes enabling banned militia groups or regimes under embargo to acquire weapons, which are subsequently used to carry out brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing, or sporadic war crimes in protracted civil wars.

The US "gun lobby", a collective of private and corporate interests that seek to limit legislation regarding ownership and trade in fire-arms, headed by the National Rifle Association, have taken up a banner of protest against the conference, alleging it will harm the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees "the right to keep and bear arms" for American citizens.

Under the US Constitution, this is a logical impossibility, because while international treaties, once ratified by Congress, are the supreme law of the land, no laws can govern which contravene the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court. It is the Congress and the Supreme Court which will always determine the fate of Second Amendment protections, never the United Nations.

Several long-running, extremely deadly and multifactional civil wars have been fueled by the traffic in light weapons and firearm ammunition. An estimated 1,000 people per day currently die from violence related to the illicit trade in small arms, and conference organizers believe that international legal action can be taken to curb the violence and prevent these deaths from mounting. [s]

BACKGROUND:
UGANDA TO DESTROY 57,000 WEAPONS
NATION WILL DISMANTLE WEAPONS SEIZED FROM ILLEGAL SOURCES, MILITARY WEAPONS BEYOND USE
24 May 2006

The nation of Uganda is taking important steps toward reducing the risk of regional arms poliferation, by destroying a stockpile of old and out-of-use weapons and weapons seized from illegal sources. The move is part of Uganda's pledge to the 2004 Nairobi Protocol, which required signatory nations of Africa's Great Lakes region to reduce the threat of proliferation of light arms across borders, to the peril of civilian populations and political stability. [Full Story]

AMNESTY REPORTS INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRADE 'OUT OF CONTROL'
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP SAYS 'OPAQUE CHAIN' OF PRIVATE INTERESTS INCREASING SHIPMENTS OF DANGEROUS ARMS, WITH LITTLE SUPERVISION
10 May 2006

Amnesty International has published a new report examining the international arms trade, and its findings indicate there is little control on the expanding web of private interests seeking to profit from a proliferation of dangerous weapons. The report also illustrates the ways in which this scattering of dangerous weapons has lead to severe human rights abuses. [Full Story]

4 MILLION KILLED IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO SINCE 1998
OUT OF SIGHT OF WORLD MEDIA, MILLIONS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY ONGOING CONFLICT, DISEASE, POVERTY
12 February 2006

Ongoing armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken an estimated 4 million lives since 1998. Estimates range from attributing 2 to 4 million deaths to the 5 year war, to placing 3 million during the war and 1 to 2 million more in fractious post-conflict unrest and deprivation. The Lancet reports 36,000 people per month are still dying from armed conflict, criminal violence, disease and malnutrition. [Full Story]

'TREE OF LIFE' MAKES USED WEAPONS INTO SIGN OF HOPE
11 July 2005

In the wake of Mozambique's long civil war, lasting from 1976 to 1992, a group of artists set up the Transforming Arms into Tools project in the nation's capital, Maputo. Sculptors use decomissioned weapons, and parts of weapons to make art, expressing the possibility of finding new ways to secure and advance civil society. [Full Story]