Arms control campaigners are to present the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the world’s largest visual petition at 10am at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg.
They want the government to know that thousands of South Africans are calling for tough controls on the international arms trade.
Twenty-eight thousand South Africans lent their faces to the international Million Faces Petition, the world’s largest-to-date visual protest document.
They join people from 150 other countries who want tougher controls on the arms trade in order to prevent weapons getting into the wrong hands.
The faces on the petition will join the faces collected around the world and will be presented to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan by the Control Arms Campaign at the start of the UN Review Conference on small arms and light weapons in New York on Monday.
The Control Arms Campaign is a joint global initiative by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), which includes Gun Free South Africa, the Ceasefire Campaign and the Coalition for Peace in Africa (Copa).
It aims to reduce arms proliferation and misuse as well as to convince governments to introduce global principles to regulate the transfers of weapons and a binding arms trade treaty.
”Arms manufacturers and gun runners must be held responsible and accountable for the consequences of their business to Africa’s endless armed conflicts and inability to meet its Millennium Development Goals,” said Chemist Khumalo, director for the Ceasefire Campaign.
Judy Bassingthwaighte, director of Gun Free South Africa said, ”The Million Faces petition is a powerful, visual display of the massive public support here in South Africa and around the world for stronger arms controls. More than 100 000 lives were lost to armed violence between 1994 and 2004 in our country. Around the world 1 000 people are killed every day as a result of armed violence. Many thousands more are maimed, tortured or forced to flee their homes. The abuse of arms fuels conflict, poverty and violations of human rights.”
South Africa will next week participate in a UN Review Conference on small arms and light weapons in New York, where campaigners hope initial agreement will be reached towards tough controls on the arms trade.
South African campaigners will be going to New York and will be calling on governments to agree to global principles to regulate the arms trade.
”This UN conference offers a vital opportunity for world governments to agree to a set of global principles on arms sales,” said Oxfam South Africa director Shehnilla Mohamed.
”The South African government already has in place strong controls for arms exports. We believe the government should build on the commitment it has already shown at home and do all it can to push hard for a strong agreement at the UN conference. This is the first major global review of small arms controls in five years and is a unique opportunity for governments to take action — one they
cannot afford to miss,” she added.
”Unless governments act to stop the spread of arms, deadly weapons will continue to fuel violent conflict, state repression, crime, and domestic abuse,” said Olajobi Makinwa, Amnesty International South Africa’s director.
”The Control Arms Campaign is calling on governments to take the opportunities this year to adopt tough controls on the arms trade. Firstly, through agreeing global principles on arms exports at next week’s UN Review Conference. And then by agreeing to an international Arms Trade Treaty at the UN General Assembly in
October to regulate the sales of weapons and stop them being sold to conflict zones, human rights abusers and criminals,” Makinwa said. – Sapa