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Press Release:
Launch of Report by Canadian Government and
The Biting the Bullet Project
10 July 2001
Putting Children First:
Building a Framework For International Action to Address the
Impact of Small Arms on Children
On Wednesday 11 July, a major report on the
impact of small arms on children will be launched at the United
Nations. The report is sponsored by the Canadian Department
of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and co-ordinated
by the Biting the Bullet Project.1
Written by Rachel Stohl of the Center for Defense Information and drawing on case-studies
by researchers in Cambodia, Colombia and Mozambique, Putting
Children First highlights how the presence, proliferation
and misuse of small arms and light weapons blights the daily
lives of millions of children around the world.
More than 90% of the victims of small arms are
civilian, of which 80% are women and children. Two million
children have been killed in conflicts in the last 10 years,
while 6 million have been disabled and 22 million have been
driven from their homes. The vast majority of casualties are
directly attributable to small arms and light weapons.
A press conference will be held at 11:15am
in Room S-226 at which Dr Rey Pagtakhan, Canadian Head of
Delegation to the UN Conference on Small Arms, General Romeo
Dallaire, former head of the United Nations Mission in Rwanda,
Rachel Stohl and Sarah Meek of the Biting the Bullet Project
will present the report and its findings.
"The launch of this report seizes upon the
unique opportunities provided by the current UN Conference
on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All
Its Aspects and the forthcoming UN Special Session on Children
to show how the uncontrolled spread of small arms can hit
children harder than other sectors of society" said author
Rachel Stohl. The report makes a series of recommendations
for national, regional international and non-governmental
action to address the links between small arms and the suffering
of children. These include measures to control the trade in
small arms, to address the needs of child combatants, and
to heighten public awareness of these interlinked issues.
In addition, the report calls for the UN Conference
on Small Arms to take clear steps to mitigate the effects
of small arms on children including:
-
Explicit references in the preamble to the
need to combat violence perpetrated against children by
small arms and address the long-term social and psychological
impact of these weapons on a child's development;
-
Focussing weapons collection programmes
on illicit arms used by children and prioritising the
destruction of these weapons;
-
Effective disarmament, demobilisation and
reintegration programmes that include specific recognition
of the needs of child combatants;
-
Including in national and regional export
criteria prohibitions on the transfer of small arms to
countries or groups that use child soldiers;
-
Agreeing to develop an international convention
to control arms brokers, who often transfer small arms
to the conflict zones where children are victims.
"Small arms undermine the capability to return
children to society and prevent efforts to establish an atmosphere
of peace and security" said General Dallaire, Special
Advisor on War-Affected Children to the Canadian Minister
for International Cooperation.
1 The Biting the Bullet Project is an initiative of the non-governmental
organisations BASIC, International Alert and Saferworld that focuses on promoting optimal
outcomes from the UN Conference on Small Arms.
For more information or to receive a copy
of the report, please contact Michael Crowley 1-202-487-4386,
Elizabeth Clegg 1-917-251-7095 or
Sarah Meek 44-772-044-3480.
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