Edmund Rice Justice Bulletin

One aspect of the tragedy of the conflict in Dafur and in so many other parts of the globe is the role played by the arms industry. Manufacture of weapons is a lucrative source of income for many of the worlds developed nations, so much so that as Arundhati Roy the winner of the 2004 Sydney peace prize commented "once weapons were manufactured to fight wars now wars are manufactured in order to sell weapons"

There are around 639 million small arms and light weapons in the world today. Eight million more are produced every year.

Without strict control, such weapons will continue to fuel violent conflict, state repression, crime, and domestic abuse. Unless governments act to stop the spread of arms, more lives will be lost, more human rights violations will take place, and more people will be denied the chance to escape poverty.

The Control Arms campaign supported by Oxfam and Amnesty International is now one year old. In the first year over 200,000 people from around the world joined the call for tough controls on the international arms trade. With the UK Government recently adding its support, eight governments have now publicly pledged to establish the Arms Trade Treaty.

You can sign the "million faces" petition in support of arms control at the above website.