The Ecumenical Campaign for a strong and effective Arms Trade Treaty is a cooperative initiative convened by the World Council of Churches.  The first phase of this campaign and lobby took place from October to December 2011 with special support from the Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations. 

AEFJN participates at the ecumenical working group on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). 

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/unaw/news/a/article/1722/churches-to-play-crucial.html

A Lethal Legacy: Small Arms Flows in Urban and Rural Kenya 

Kinshasa-based photographer Gwenn Dubourthoumieu present a series of photos made in Kenya to victims of violence. Gwenn has received numerous awards for his compassionate portrayal of victims of conflict and violence.

View the photo essay on Urban and Rural Kenya:  www.smallarmssurvey.org/?photo-essay-kenya

View the photo essay on South-Sudan before the secession: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/multimedia/photo-essays/photo-essay-south-sudan-overview.html

Arms continue to kill in DRCongo:

http://web.me.com/gwenn.dubourthoumieu/Gwenn_Dubourthoumieu_-_Photographe/ETAT_DARMES.html#0

Arms imports to sub-Saharan Africa
‘small but significant’

Arms flows to sub-Saharan Africa have major implications for peace and security in the region, despite seeming small on a global scale. A new report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) provides details of arms transfers in the period 2006-2010. Significant numbers of small arms were supplied to both governments and rebel forces, including at least 220 000 assault rifles to 34 countries in the region. However, it is difficult to determine the exact volume of trade as most transfers to sub-Saharan African countries are not reported by the importers to the United Nations… and there is a lack of transparency by arms suppliers and recipients in arms procurement. 

http://www.sipri.org/media/pressreleases/20-dec-2011-arms-flows-to-africa-2013-small-volume-big-impact-says-new-sipri-report

Next Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence:

11- 17 June 2011

The Global Week of Action against Gun Violence 2012 will take place from the 11-17 June. Every year, activists from all over the world join the Week of Action, demonstrating the strength of the global movement against gun violence. With the upcoming Review Conference on the UN Programme of Action on small arms and the final negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), this year’s campaign will be more important than ever to highlight the small arms issue.

More information and materials are available at http://iansa.org/campaign/global-week-of-action-against-gun-violence

Private security and security companies in peacekeeping operations

Should private military and security companies be involved in peacekeeping in Africa’s war-torn regions? As private companies, their vested interests may not coincide with those of the countries or organisations that employ them. In this monograph of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), South Africa, five African analysts debate the merits and pitfalls, morality and politics, accountability and legal issues, of using private operators in African peacekeeping efforts. It makes the case for a legal framework that can regulate these actors and hold them liable for serious violations of international humanitarian law.

http://www.issafrica.org/pgcontent.php?UID=31221

Ammunition Marking

A new Small Arms Survey Issue Brief—Ammunition Marking: Current Practices and Future Possibilities—examines marking as it relates to the tracing of cartridge-based ammunition—such as that used in pistols, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns—and its packaging. The notion of a universally applied mandate to mark individual cartridges, to allow their identification even when removed from sealed factory boxes, is controversial. As a result, ammunition control measures in general, and ammunition-marking provisions, have been excluded from any global instrument. But different regional, sub-regional, and national marking and classification systems have been established, creating multiple standards and practices.

www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/G-Issue-briefs/SAS-IB3-Ammunition-Marking.pdf

A Deadly Cycle: Conflict in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

Over the last decade, a political crisis in Jos, capital of Nigeria’s Plateau State, has developed into a widespread, protracted communal conflict. Up to 7,000 people have been killed since riots broke out in the city in late 2001, and ten years later a fragile calm in the city is kept only by the heavy presence of military and police forces. The tensions between ethnic groups have been exacerbated by a combination of conflict over the allocation of resources, electoral competition, fears of religious domination, and contested land rights. The presence of well-organized armed groups in rural areas, the proliferation of weapons, and the sharp rise in gun fatalities within Jos, all point to a risk of future large-scale violence. A Paper from the Geneva Declaration examines the root causes of conflict in Jos, mapping the spread of violence.

http://www.genevadeclaration.org/fileadmin/docs/regional-publications/GD-WP-Jos-deadly-cycle.pdf

Security and Crime in Liberia

Within a 14-year period, Liberia endured two consecutive civil wars that claimed an estimated 250,000 lives, and displaced as many as 1.5 million people. Widespread collective violence in Liberia finally came to a halt with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed in August 2003. In 2010, the Small Arms Survey administered a nationwide household survey in Liberia to investigate perceptions of security and present-day patterns of victimization, exposure to violence, and responses to threats in communities. In A Legacy of War? Perceptions of Security in Liberia respondents rate development concerns higher than safety concerns, with four-fifths of all responses raising concerns about access to clean water, health care, transportation, and education. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/G-Issue-briefs/Liberia-AVA-IB1.pdf

Nine out of ten violent deaths occur outside conflicts

An estimated 526,000 people die violently every year, but only 55,000 of them lose their lives in conflict or as a result of terrorism, reveals the second edition of the Global Burden of Armed Violence, published on 2011. The report also finds that 396,000 people—including 66,000 women—are victims of intentional homicide (murder), 54,000 die as a result of so-called ‘unintentional’ homicides (manslaughter), and 21,000 violent deaths occur during law enforcement actions. The boundaries between political, criminal, and interpersonal violence have become increasingly blurred, as revealed in cases of killings associated with drug trafficking in Central America or of pirates engaging in economically-motivated violence in Somalia.

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/highlight-gbav-2011.html

Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites

Between January and October 2011 thirty-five unplanned explosions at munitions sites (UEMS) were recorded globally, bringing the number of such events since 1998 to a total of 302, across 76 states. The new Research Note of Small Arms Survey offers a concise overview of the problem, giving a breakdown of reported incidents by region and by cause, and outlines practical measures to reduce the likelihood of explosions. There are numerous causes for the explosions at munitions sites, including lack of technical knowledge, uneven attention to safety standards, poor storage practices, and poor infrastructure. While some solutions are expensive to implement and may require external assistance, many can be undertaken unilaterally and with modest investment. Reports of recent UEMS events: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/?uems
Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites: www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-6.pdf

IANSA Survivors Network

IANSA has launched the IANSA Survivors Network to strengthen IANSA advocacy for survivors’ rights and gun violence prevention. From the early days of IANSA, members have advocated as, and for, victims and survivors of gun violence and worked to open spaces for survivors’ participation, particularly in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and Programme of Action on small arms (PoA) processes. Ce Réseau relies on the active participation of survivors as lobbyists and “sensitisers” on the direct and indirect effects of gun violence. The IANSA Survivors Network Coordinator is Hector Guerra survivors@iansa.org.