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Women Advocates Place Gender and Guns on the UN's Agenda, July 23, 2008

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AdvocacyNet
News Bulletin 150
July 23, 2008
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July 23, 2008, New York: Advocates for women's rights have succeeded in getting violence against women included in a major United Nations initiative to regulate the global small arms trade.

The UN Programme of Action on small arms (PoA) was launched in 2001, and reviewed last week at the Third Biennial Meeting of States (BMS), held at UN headquarters in New York. After intense lobbying by advocates, gender was mentioned by several governments at the meeting. In addition, the final outcome document refers to both gender and civilian possession of weapons.

Advocates hope that this will open the door to the inclusion of other concerns, particularly armed domestic violence. Worldwide, women are about 12 times more likely to die from domestic violence when a gun is the home.

"I think that we made a small inroad regarding the inclusion of gender, and I think that our presence ensured that women are not forgotten," said Sarah Masters, Coordinator of the Women's Network for the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a powerful voice for mitigating the impact of gun violence worldwide.

The IANSA Women's Network, a strategic partner of The Advocacy Project (AP), brought more than 15 of its members to the BMS. During interviews with AP intern Jessie Schwartz, the women talked about the proliferation of guns in their countries, and its impact on women.

According to Rita Santos, from the Economic and Social Council in Portugal, men keep guns at home for hunting, and use this to intimidate their partners. Dr Mirjana Dokmanovic, a leading researcher from Serbia, described a "culture of guns" in post-war Serbia. 

In the Middle East, guns are increasingly used by family members against women in honor killings. In Brazil and Jamaica, many women gravitate toward gun-toting men for a sense of protection. 

Alba Zelaya, director of women's group Cemujer in El Salvador, said that 99 women have been killed so far this year in her country, and that more than 80 percent died from gun violence.

Concerns about armed domestic violence were widely aired by the IANSA members at last week's UN meeting. Marie Claire Faray Kele from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) gave a formal presentation to delegates on guns and both domestic and sexual violence, and the network held a side event on links between domestic violence and firearms possession. Network members also put together a "clothesline" display of traditional women's clothing that included testimony on the impact of gun violence on women and girls.

The UN has been working for seven years to regulate firearms worldwide, based on the PoA developed in 2001. Women were only mentioned in one sentence in the original document, according to Ms Masters.

This year, the Women's Network released a statement calling on states to include gender data in their national reports on the plan, support research, and push for laws to prevent armed domestic violence. The network highlighted the efforts of Australia, Canada, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago; four countries that have harmonized domestic violence and firearms laws.

Ms Masters said the Women's Network hopes to develop a program focusing on armed domestic violence, building on the connections made at the UN. 

"The challenges are that women's issues and gender issues should not be sidelined or seen as an 'additional' or 'optional' extra, which is often the feeling that some of us get when we are at such meetings," she said.

• Read the BMS 2008 Outcome Document.
• Read the Women's Network statement.
• Learn more about the IANSA Women's Network.