PRESS RELEASE: Civil Society organizations call on Indian Government to support the United Nations process for an International Arms Trade Treaty

Civil Society organizations call on Indian Government to support the
United Nations process for an
International Arms Trade Treaty

Experts Round Table Conference titled
“Armament, Disarmament & Non- Proliferation:
Continuingour questfor strengthening sustainable peace and security in India andSouthernAsia region and understanding the United Nations Process for aproposedArms Trade Treaty”
on 23 and 24 September 2009 at the UN Conference Hall in New Delhi.

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For photgrapaphs of the event please click HERE

The event was covered by several publications such as
Morung Express, Nagaland
E-Pao, Manipur

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NewDelhi, 25 September 2009: As a part of a 12 days international campaignfrom International Day of Peace to International Day of Non-Violence,Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI) in collaboration with UnitedNations Information Centre, New Delhi, organized two days experts roundtable conference titled “Armament, Disarmament & Non-Proliferation: Continuing our quest for strengthening sustainable peaceand security in India and Southern Asia region and understanding theUnited Nations Process for a proposed Arms Trade Treaty” on 23 and 24September 2009 at the UN Conference Hall, New Delhi.

Theconference looked into the various issues of armament, disarmament andnon-proliferation efforts that have held the attention of the world andIndia in particular after the terror attacks in Mumbai on 26 November2008. It also looked into the recently concluded historic consensus atthe United Nations where most of the UN member states agreed thatinternational action is needed to address the problem of theunregulated arms trade and transfer.

Theconference was successfully observed with active participation ofexperts, diplomats, government officials from Ministry of Defence andMinistry of External Affairs, defence & security analyst, militarypersonnel, delegates of the arms and defence industries,parliamentarians, journalists, lawyers, rights groups and survivors ofarmed violence.

Theconference was inaugurated by Ambassador (retd) Arundhati Ghose,India’s former Ambassador to the United Nations on Disarmament. In heraddress she stated “it is India that needs to be reminded onnon-violence and not the rest of the world. The message has come backto us.” She added that if we look at the statistics small arms arebecoming weapons of mass destruction and regulation is a must.”

Morethan 640 million small arms and light weapons are estimated to be incirculation worldwide, which are directly responsible for killing300,000 people in armed conflict and 200,000 more in homicide andsuicide, every year. In India alone 12 people die of gun shots everyday.

Atpresent, it is impossible to monitor or interrupt this deadly flow ofweapons. This is because there are no agreed global standards forgovernments when authorizing exports or transfers. Recognizing thatthere is a strong need for a global Arms Trade Treaty to regulateinternational arms transfer the United Nations have started working inthis direction after a remarkable number of 153 States voted in favorof an ATT resolution for establishing common international standardsfor imports and exports and transfer of conventional arms.

ShriVipul, Deputy Secretary of Disarmament and International SecurityAffairs at the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India,stated that, “We feel that the issue is complex and needs astep-by-step approach. We remain constructively engaged on the issue inan open-ended working group which has met twice in 2009. India iscommitted towards the objective of global disarmament based onprinciples of universality, non-discrimination and effectivecompliance, especially the key countries.”

“Inrecent decades, the States have adopted wide-ranging prohibitions andlimitations on the transfer of chemical, biological and nuclearweapons. Yet it is conventional weapons- that are causing most of thedeath and injury in today’s conflicts. Until recently, however, thetransfer of conventional weapons had received little attention at theglobal level.  And hence the need for common global standards in thisfield, to achieve consistent approaches to arms transferdecision-making among States”, said Mr. Francois Stamm, RegionalDelegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in New Delhi.

Colonal(retd) Gobinder Singh, South Asia representative of the DefenceManufacturers Association UK, stated that “We shouldn’t forget that themajority of the arms industry is already one of the most heavilyregulated in the world, but that regulation is by no means universal inscope or effect. This uneven landscape provides one of the keyarguments deployed in support of an ATT and one of our major challengesfor compliance.”

Dr.Anuradha Reddy from the Defence Research & Development Organization(DRDO), Ministry of Defence, Government of India added “sophisticatedweapons are easily available in the hands of terrorist or non stateactors. There is a need for efficient handling of terror strickenweapons”.

“Thegovernment should take strict actions against these irresponsible armstrading which fuels conflict and should take the responsibility to helpvictims like me. The plights of widow like me and thousands of othersare of no consequence to the government of my state” said Ms. RenuHangzo, a woman gun survivor from Manipur who lost her husband and ispresently supported by Manipur Women Gun survivors Network.

Theconference ended with a very powerful valedictory address by Ms. KamlaBhasin, Advisor, South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers.In her speech she said “the quest for sustainable peace does notrequire arms. Peace is requires Justice. People who are angry,suppressed and uprooted ask for justice but they don’t get it. In India40% of women are battered. Peace starts from home, each home should bea peace zone. We must be the crack on the wall that divides, whether itis religion, caste, borders. Peace will come from these cracks.”

Theconference was a step towards the negotiation on the arms trade treatythat will reconvene in October 2009 at the United Nations FirstCommittee on Disarmament.

For more information please contact:

Control Arms Foundation of India
B 5/146, First Floor, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi – 110029

Mobile: +91-(0)9910580521 (Juliee Sharma)