Put a new face on arms-control advocacy

Idea exchange
April 2004

Put a new face on arms-control advocacy—yours
"The 'Million Faces' petition is a new way of campaigning," reports Amnesty International. "Our aim is to collect one million photos and self-portraits of people all around the world to demonstrate to governments that we need effective and urgent action to control the arms trade crisis.

AI intends to used the uniquely personalized petition to "persuade the world's governments to sign up to a global Arms Trade Treaty. With your help it will be the world's biggest popular movement against the misuse of arms."

More than 1,130 companies, in 98 countries, are manufacturing small arms, ammunition, and components, and this figure is on the increase. In the last 40 years, the number of countries producing small arms has doubled. Small arms kill more civilians than any other type of weapon, yet still there are no binding international laws to stop these weapons falling into the hands of killers and human rights abusers.

Control is left to national governments. Unfortunately, more often than not, their legislation is pitifully inadequate and riddled with loopholes, according to AI, and even if one country does refuse to supply arms to a particular buyer, there is little to prevent another supplier stepping in to seal the deal.

AI charges that the arms industry "is unlike any other. It operates without regulation. It suffers from widespread corruption and bribes. And it makes its profits on the back of machines designed to kill and maim human beings.

"So who profits most from this murderous trade? The five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the USA, UK, France, Russia, and China. Together, they are responsible for 88 percent of reported conventional arms exports."

"We can’t have it both ways. We can't be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of arms," said Former President Jimmy Carter during his 1976 presidential campaign.

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