Asociación Para Políticas Publicas (the Association for Public Politics or APP) is an organization that focuses on working through public policy channels to affect positive change in the realm of disarmament and ending gun violence in Argentina and in the region. By signing onto the Disarming Domestic Violence (DDV) campaign, they have expressed their commitment to working towards raising awareness about the ways in which gun violence negatively (and disproportionately) affects women (especially within their homes) and to reducing the number of women affected by gun violence within the home.

Over the past six weeks of working with APP on the DDV Campaign in Argentina, I have been struck by the enormity of the task that IANSA and their partner organizations have set out to accomplish: ending gender-based gun-violence within the home in their countries and worldwide. How necessary and yet how enormous.  With a goal so large I have begun to ask myself and others, what are the causes of gender-based gun violence?  And with causes so numerous and complex, how do we know where to begin? How do we decide where to focus our energies and work? Surely they can’t possibly be tackled through just one or two single angles. Which are the angles that are necessary to tackle such a vast issue?  Which will have the highest impact on reducing domestic armed violence?

Two of the primary focuses of my work as an Advocacy Project Fellow on the DDV campaign include working towards harmonizing gun laws with domestic violence laws in Argentina, and the collection of statistics on the link between gun violence and domestic violence. Because APP is an organization that has tended towards working within the public policy realm, they have a strategic, comparative advantage in accomplishing the legal aims of the campaign.  APP maintains strong relationships with members of the Argentine government and continues to build on and leverage those relationships to improve domestic gun laws and disarmament.

Although the expertise amongst the small, hard-working staff at APP is not in the area of social work or data collection, they recognize that working solely on the level of public policy (changing national gun and domestic violence laws through talking with members of parliament and government) is not enough.  While working to prevent arms from getting in the hands of someone with a history of domestic violence, we cannot forget to address the socio-political, cultural, economic, and historical factors, amongst others, that contribute to a home, neighborhood, city, province, country, and world in which domestic armed violence continues to occur. That is why one of the first steps APP has taken in launching the DDV campaign in Argentina has been to develop a network of individuals, organizations, women’s groups, civil society members, government officials, academics, journalists, and others who are committed to ending gender-based gun violence.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been focused on helping APP develop this network, in an effort to build a bridge and foster collaboration between the individuals and groups already working on issues related to the campaign.  Oftentimes these members are working in isolation from one another, making their work more difficult, less efficient, and therefore sometimes also low impact.  Building a network will hopefully improve efficiency, help to expand the campaign’s support base, and expand the locations (family homes, community, nations) and angles from which this enormous problem can be tackled.

One of the many principles of strategic nonviolent movements and campaigns is the importance of building a broad base of support. The phase of building support for a movement or campaign can be seen as both a strategic and tactical move as doing so upfront will benefit future campaign actions. This is certainly the case for APP, who launched the DDV campaign in Argentina back in of June prior to developing an extensive network.  Future DDV campaign actions will greatly benefit from the strength of a diverse base of supporters that can put collective pressure on the media to cover these issues and draw attention to the campaign, pressure on the government to change domestic violence and gun laws, and apply forms of social pressure to begin changing behaviors. While building this base of support may not be easy, it does indeed seem necessary.

As the quote by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo goes, “The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better”.  I look forward to seeing the impact of the work we are doing to build this “power of many” for the Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign in Argentina.

After a short hiatus I’m back on the blog-roll with a recap of the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence and the activities that we took part in to launch the Disarming Domestic Violence (DDV) Campaign here in Argentina!

Bike stunts next to Argentine flag in La Plata

The week started with a holiday, Flag Day, here in Argentina, but that didn’t hold us back from making the week a hit.  On Tuesday I accompanied my colleagues, Maria Pia Devoto and Maria Paula Cellone to a series of meetings with organizations that were identified as potentially important allies in the campaign.  One of the goals of the disarming domestic violence campaign is to raise awareness about armed domestic violence, and to draw the link between organizations working on so-called “women’s issues” and those working on disarmament in the country Argentina.  One of the ways that Asociacion Para Politicas Publicas approaches building these bridges is by meeting face to face with representatives from those organizations, talking with them about the campaign, and encouraging them to see the importance in drawing a link between small arms and domestic violence.  Meetings also provide an opportunity to involve these organizations in supporting the DDV campaign in future meetings, actions, and/or government lobbying, thereby developing a network of individuals and organizations committed to taking action on behalf of the campaign and strengthening the overall impact of the campaign.

The first meeting we took part in was with Andrea Moriño, Project Coordinator at Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (Foundation for the Study and Research of Women, or FEIM).  FEIM was founded in 1989 to defend and advocate for women’s rights, and to improve the social, legal, political, economic, and health conditions of women across Argentina. While FEIM’s current work is mostly focused on women’s sexual and reproductive health, we were able to connect with their mission by speaking about armed domestic violence from the perspective of a women’s health framework.  By the end of our meeting, we had received a commitment from FEIM to further support the campaign by taking part in future meetings and actions, and APP feels confident that they can rely on FEIM to represent the campaign from the perspective of women’s health in the future.

Later that day we met with Maria Fabiana Loguzzo, Director of the Women’s Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Argentina, to share information about the DDV Campaign. They understood the need to link the issues of arms and domestic violence in a formal campaign and pledged their full support including participating in and promoting future campaign initiatives.  This includes gaining access to their vast network, where they will distribute information and encourage people to join in on future activities.

Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign Poster

Meanwhile, National Deputy (equivalent to a member of the House of Representatives in the US) Luciano Fabris introduced a bill about the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence and the DDV campaign launch to raise awareness about the DDV campaign launch amongst parliamentarians and through the congress website. It was really wonderful to receive this level of visibility within the Argentine government, as one of the principle targets of the campaign is to affect change within both domestic violence and gun laws in Argentina and the region. Having this point of entry into the legislature, and public support from one member of congress will enable APP and the growing DDV campaign network to continue building upon this initial support.

Campaign Materials

On Friday Paula and I headed to the Callao subway stop in downtown Buenos Aires and set-up a table with all of the campaign materials. The materials included the DDV campaign “goodies” from IANSA (key chains, stickers, wristbands), and copies of the bright and shiny, newly color-printed 4-page newsletter which was filled with information about the campaign objectives, the link between armed and domestic violence, current laws in Argentina, and resources for victims and families of victims. This “Day of Distribution” was quite popular, and we spent the lunch hours sharing information and talking with people passing about the Week of Action and DDV campaign launch, in one of the busiest areas of downtown Buenos Aires.

Paula shares information with a Porteño

Attempting to explain the campaign in Spanish

We finished the day by meeting with experts at the National Council of Women, an Argentine governmental agency. We spent time discussing the launch of the campaign, sharing materials, and talking about future collaboration.  Susana Orcino, Norma Garbarini and Josephina Guerra, a specialist in Gender-based violence, were all very interested in the campaign and future collaboration. They agreed to promote the campaign on their website, share contacts, help to plan and participate in future campaign events.

"9 x Dia" or "9 per day"

The Week of Action Against Gun Violence in Argentina culminated on Saturday, June 20, 2009 with a candle light vigil at the main plaza in La Plata, Buenos Aires.  The vigil was organized by representatives from all of the major groups and organizations that constitute the Argentinean disarmament network (Red Argentina para el Desarme) including APP. Representatives from Amnesty International were also in attendance. The vigil highlighted the statistic “9 per day” which is the number of people killed by gun violence in Argentina each day.  Vigil organizers used candles to spell out “9 x dia” across the plaza.  We also continued to distribute leaflets with information about the campaign and the week of action, took lots of photos, and will soon be sharing video footage from the event as well.

Vigil Poster: Light a flame and the fire goes out

For me, the vigil was a bittersweet ending to the successful week of action as there were several individuals taking part in the vigil who had been personally affected by deaths brought about by gun violence. It was a sobering and important reminder of the significance of these campaign efforts, as well as the consequences for not taking measures to prevent senseless violence. One man who is particularly active, is the father of a young man who was randomly shot and killed while walking down the street in a busy area of Buenos Aires. Another woman, the sister of another gun violence victim, was also in attendance, and the mood was solemn as they represented their grievances through this public action.