WCC FEATURE: Churches campaign for treaty to tackle illicit arms sales, often a north-south business

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World Council of Churches - Feature

CHURCHES CAMPAIGN FOR TREATY TO TACKLE ILLICIT ARMS SALES, OFTEN A
NORTH-SOUTH BUSINESS

For immediate release: 02 April 2012

By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

After July, arms used to commit atrocities and serious crimes may become
harder to buy, and harder to sell, internationally. That is if governments
already agreed on the need to regulate the arms trade can agree on a
treaty that is fit for the task and covers all conventional weapons.
Diplomats from nearly 200 countries will spend July at the United Nations
to negotiate the proposed Arms Trade Treaty.

Diplomats from nearly 200 countries will spend month of July at the United
Nations to negotiate the proposed Arms Trade Treaty.

Their challenge lies in keeping the arms trade open to militaries, police
forces and other groups who are judged to use arms legally and
responsibly, and closing the trade to those who donât. Arms
manufacturers, gun enthusiasts, as well as civil society organizations and
churches are seeking to influence the outcome.

The human impact of the arms trade is the galvanizing factor for churches.
A campaign led by the World Council of Churches (WCC) is working to ensure
that the treaty protects people and communities put at risk by current
arms trade practices. Churches from more than 30 countries are involved.
Some participants are from countries that profit from the trade and others
are from countries that suffer as a result.

Campaign representatives have met so far with 20 governments from Africa,
Asia, Europe and the Americas developing measures to make the treaty
strong and effective.

Millions of lives are shattered or lost in armed violence each year and
âbadly regulated exports, imports and transfers of weapons must bear
part of the blame,â says a WCC policy statement issued recently to guide
the campaign.

The policy affirms the fact that 153 governments have agreed to adopt
âthe highest possible common international standardâ for how
conventional arms may be traded, but it warns that the treaty must work to
stop arms for governments that âpose a threat to their own people or to
other statesâ and to block shipments likely to be diverted to armed
groups, organized crime or smugglers.

Prohibition on arms sales

The ecumenical policy says the treaty must prohibit arms sales where there
is a âsubstantial riskâ of serious violations of international human
rights or humanitarian law, where there is a pattern of gender-based armed
violence or where development work will be seriously impaired. These
positions are shared with a broad range of civil society organizations in
a coalition known as Control Arms (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=fc80ec7a1b9fae7417d1 ).

The WCC-led campaign bridges a north-south divide that shapes the arms
trade. Churches from major arms producers like the US, Sweden and Norway
lobby alongside churches from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and
Sierra Leone, where imported arms fuel conflict and violence. Churches
want stricter controls on both sides. Lives and communities will be spared
to the extent that sellers, middlemen and buyers are all held to higher
and more consistent standards along a supply chain that usually runs from
the Global North to the Global South.

More than 100 religious leaders â Christian, Muslim, Jewish and others
have signed an interfaith declaration to governments supporting an Arms
Trade Treaty.

The ecumenical campaign began in October 2011 with participants from the
International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=4410fc2fc53f0f0a359b ) and an 
endorsement from the
WCC Central Committee earlier in the year.

[538 words]

(*) Jonathan Frerichs, WCC programme executive for peace building and
disarmament, is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

More information about the ecumenical campaign on the arms trade treaty
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=d3f5b0638d6c5f564e29 )

WCC Executive Committee âStatement on the need for a strong and effective
arms trade treaty (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=47cb05bed83a9bebac94 )

Sign the âInter-Faith Declaration in Support of an Arms Trade Treatyâ
(Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=762eff5f5bd1edb151ce
)(available in Arabic, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese).


The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.



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