27,000 New Signatures to Million Faces Petition

Posted: 25 January 2006

Control Arms campaign exceeds goal for World Social Forum.

The Control Arms campaign attracted 27,000 new signatures to the Million Faces petition at the World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali from 19-23 January. The new signatures exceeded the goal of 15,000 set for the week, an impressive result achieved thanks to a dynamic team of 55 new volunteers from the Youth Network organized by Amnesty International-Mali.

“The volunteers did an excellent job,” said Eva Kouka, of Oxfam America. “They worked well together, and were united in their interest in the problem of arms proliferation,” she said.

Promotion of the campaign and the petition drive included press conferences, distribution of flyers, and broadcast of public service spots on television featuring well-known West African pop stars. During the African Reggae Festival, the videos produced for the new media campaign featuring the celebrities urged concert goers to ask their governments to support a stronger arms control system in the region. All these efforts contributed to the success of the petition drive.

The Control Arms campaign is a joint effort by Oxfam International, Amnesty International, and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). The objectives of the Control Arms campaign include limiting the trade and improper use of firearms, and pushing governments to create an international treaty limiting the trade in small arms and light weapons. In West Africa, a region where civil wars and low-level communal violence are facilitated by easy access to weapons, the Control Arms campaign is calling for the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to transform their current moratorium on the trade in arms to a more robust ban.

The World Social Forum in Bamako was the first of three major efforts to promote the Control Arms campaign in Mali. Amnesty International in Mali will hold a big event in Sikasso (300 miles south of Bamako near the Côte d’Ivoire border) on March 26. The event will commemorate the end of several years of hostilities between the government of Mali and the Touareg ethnic group.

After that, the Control Arms campaign will also celebrate an International Week of Action in Kayes from 18-25 May. Campaign organizers hope to sign up a total of 80,000 people to the Million Faces petition before the next UN conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons scheduled for 26 June.