Every year, 5,00,000 people are killed in gun violence across the world. Eighty per cent of the victims are women and children.
The Control Arms campaign, a global movement involving the IANSA, Oxfam and Amnesty International, is mooting a global arms treaty that will toughen up controls on the arms trade.
Binalakshmi Nepram , Oxfam's South Asia advisor on the Control Arms campaign, tells Sindhu Manjesh that every government must be held accountable if we are to bring some order in an increasingly conflict-ridden world:
How was the Control Arms campaign conceived and what is its primary objective?
Though there are regional agreements and conventions on arms control, there is no global code that is binding on all countries. In 1997, Nobel peace laureates such as Rev Desmond Tutu and Aung Sang Suu Kyi called for an international code on arms.
Consultations were held with legal experts from the Cambridge Law Centre and certain proposals were put forth. It called for an international treaty on arms trade. Since 2003, we have been lobbying to get member countries of the UN to pass a resolution.
Among other things, all weapons should bear markings, which would then help to trace them to their manufacturers and their countries of origin so that these countries will then be responsible about where their weapons are going.
The Control Arms campaign, a global movement involving the IANSA, Oxfam and Amnesty International, is mooting a global arms treaty that will toughen up controls on the arms trade.
Binalakshmi Nepram , Oxfam's South Asia advisor on the Control Arms campaign, tells Sindhu Manjesh that every government must be held accountable if we are to bring some order in an increasingly conflict-ridden world:
How was the Control Arms campaign conceived and what is its primary objective?
Though there are regional agreements and conventions on arms control, there is no global code that is binding on all countries. In 1997, Nobel peace laureates such as Rev Desmond Tutu and Aung Sang Suu Kyi called for an international code on arms.
Consultations were held with legal experts from the Cambridge Law Centre and certain proposals were put forth. It called for an international treaty on arms trade. Since 2003, we have been lobbying to get member countries of the UN to pass a resolution.
Among other things, all weapons should bear markings, which would then help to trace them to their manufacturers and their countries of origin so that these countries will then be responsible about where their weapons are going.