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Tuesday Jan 23, 2007

Celebrations....

Last night Oxfam, Amnesty International and IANSA came together for a rather posh evening of celebrations marking the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voting to start work on an Arms Trade Treaty(153 governments voted in favour of the resolution). This is an incredible achievement following years of campaigning and over a million people pledging their support through the Million Faces Petition. I was invited to attend this event.

We were served delicious food and wine (fairtrade, of course!) and given the opportunity to listen to a number of motivational speakers. I was particularly moved by a man who spoke about his experiences of armed conflict - He was a Scottish man who had married a woman from Turkey, when their first (and only) son was 2 and a half, they went over to Turkey to visit her parents, while in a cafe in Turkey an argument broke out between two others in this cafe, someone involved in this argument pulled out a gun and started shooting it randomly, this resulted in his son being killed instantly and others being badly injured.  Since this event he had dedicated his life to campaigning against arms trade. This really brought it home that armed violence can affect anyone and that we need to do what we can to stop it.

I think the most powerful message that i have been able to take away from these celebrations is that ...campaigning works and we really can make a difference!

Posted by Helen Bryant ( 2:46 PM )
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