CORRECTION*/RIGHTS: Women Activists Face Off With Gun Merchants

CORRECTION*/RIGHTS: Women Activists Face Off With Gun Merchants
By Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) - They are not interested in buying or using the product, yet they are condemned by the manufacturers to pay an increasingly heavy price, say human rights and peace activists about the millions of women who are suffering from the death and grief caused by the multi-billion-dollar trade in illegal guns.

Throughout the world, women and girls are facing indiscriminate violence, according to a new report jointly released by the London-based Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Oxfam International.

There are about 650 million guns in circulation in the world today, most of which are owned by men, says the report entitled, "The Impact of Guns on Women's Lives." Amnesty researchers have identified over 1,100 companies manufacturing small arms and ammunition in at least 98 countries, and say these numbers are likely to increase.

While there is no solid figure on illegal gun sales, authorised small arms sales are worth 21 billion dollars. They include revolvers, pistols, rifles and light machine guns.

"Gun violence against women is happening around the world," says Saira Rees-Roberts of Amnesty International. "This is not happening only in the developing countries. It is also happening in the developed world."

Rejecting the notion that guns are necessary for personal protection, she cites the report's finding that in the United States, a gun in the home increases the risk that someone in the household will be murdered by 41 percent. In South Africa, a woman is shot dead by a current or former partner every 18 hours.

Activists say the proliferation of guns continues because certain governments are held hostage to the economic interests of gun manufacturers while others are reluctant to take action on gun control for political reasons.

"The U.S. government is under pressure from the National Rifle Association," says Rebecca Peters of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). "There are other governments which are not restricting proliferation of guns for political reasons."

However, as Peters and others point out, as a result of their campaign, some countries have adopted a wide range of effective measures to promote gun control, and the actions have produced positive results.

The report shows that between 1995, when Canada tightened its gun laws, and 2003, the gun murder rate for women dropped by 40 percent. Similarly, five years after the gun laws in Australia were renewed, the murder rate for women came down 50 percent.

And gun violence directed at women is not the only cause of concern.

"In many parts of the world, if a husband or son is killed, it's the woman who suffers," says Peters, adding that in such cases women have to take on economic responsibility for the whole family.

Amnesty International and other groups are urging the government to make gun licensing mandatory and to toughen laws on violence against women. They are also calling on national governments to ensure equal participation of women in peace processes.

Activists say there is need for a treaty that would ban the export of guns to those likely to use them for violence against women and other human rights violations.

At the international level, the United Nations admits that guns and various other kinds of small arms are primarily responsible. But so far the world body lacks consensus on the creation of an arms trade treaty that would prohibit arms exports to those likely to use them for violence against women.

"More countries should be signing up to the arms control treaty," says Roberts, who believes many governments are still lacking the political will. "We hope they will do so."

A report in January by a coalition led by Amnesty, Oxfam and IANSA said that while weapons and ammunition often carry basic serial numbers, there is no worldwide system to record this information - making it difficult to identify, locate and trace illegal arms shipments.

The resistance by governments to a global system for tracking arms transfers has meant that "it is nearly impossible to prosecute people or hold governments accountable for illegally selling arms and breaking U.N. arms embargoes", says the report, titled "Tracing Lethal Tools".

*Corrects the number of companies in third paragraph. (END/2005)

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