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The proliferation of hundreds of millions of small arms probably is the world's biggest source of violent deaths, internal armed conflicts, and massive human rights abuse. As armies in Northern America, Europe and former Soviet Union shrink, much of their excess equipment is given away or sold cheaply to other countries. The light weapons trade has grown into a wave since the Cold War, transforming minor incidents into massacres, escalating tensions between small groups into full-scale wars, and making tranquil societies into the killing fields of criminal gangs.

Arms that can be carried by an individual cause an estimated 90 per cent of all casualties -- mostly children, women, and other civilians. Even after conflicts formally end, demobilization and reconciliation efforts are frustrated by the flow of these inexpensive and sturdy weapons into the wrong hands at the wrong time. There will be little progress in settling existing and future wars and complex emergencies if there is not more control over the production and transfer of small arms.

 Illegal use and trade of small arms/weapons are now a global concern as a vast number of actors have increasingly easy access to highly lethal weaponry facilitated by political conflicts, insurgencies corruption, and the rapid expansion of illegal trade/trafficking of drugs, women and children. Such weapons are increasingly being used by various groups, clans, gangs including children and are all too often being turned against those whom humanitarian law is designed to protect – the civilians and particularly women and children.

 South Asia at the moment is facing a tremendous challenge in this respect. The pervasiveness of corruption, weak law and order infrastructure, increased political disagreement, condescending terrorism at all level, etc has critically influenced present violent situation in this region. Small arms and light weapons are the weapons of choice in many contemporary conflicts. This is particularly the case in internal conflicts involving insurgent militias fighting government forces. Small arms are widely used in conflicts in which a high proportion of the casualties are civilians, and in which violence has been perpetrated in gross violation of international humanitarian law. This has led to millions of deaths and injuries, the displacement of populations, and suffering and insecurity in the region. Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been among the victims of small arms and light weapons, or have been exploited as participants in conflicts in which these arms are used.

 The easy availability of small arms in the region has exacerbated and increased the lethality of conflicts and obstructed development and relief assistance efforts. Such availability has also endangered the lives of United Nations peacekeepers, humanitarian aid workers and non-governmental partners. Since the proliferation of small arms and light weapons knows no boundaries, it is necessary to coordinate efforts regionally to curb the trans-boundary transfer of arms.

Who’s affected by small arms? 

·         Civilians: The International Committee of the Red Cross has estimated that one out of every two casualties of “war” is a civilian caught in the crossfire. Many of these victims are women and children.

·         Women and Children: The light weight and small size of these weapons has made it possible for combatants to compel children to become soldiers.

·         Dissidents, organizers, activists, journalists: Small arms are the principal tool of intimidation used by repressive police and military forces.

·         Relief and Development workers: Armed conflict often creates the crises that relief workers are called in to alleviate. In addition, aid workers are increasingly coming under fire.

·         Peacekeepers: The U.N. has found that small arms pose the greatest threat to international troops seeking to establish or maintain peace.

·         Businesspeople: In some parts of the world businesspeople are often kidnapped or extorted with these arms. More generally, the widespread diffusion of light weapons undermines economic development and contributes to the collapse of some economies.

·         Tourists: Armed violence has a devastating impact on local tourism, which is the largest industry in the world today and the leading source of revenue for many countries.

·         Police, Law Enforcement Officers, Border Forces: Drug traffickers and other criminals increasingly out-gun civil police forces.

The campaign also wants to put forward concrete plans and action steps to the countries, especially the concerned authorities and stakeholders through the various information, education and communication materials as well as future participation in the events organized by the local and regional civil societies.

The campaign is expected to create linkages with other national, regional and international forums, networks, associations, and organizations for sharing information, exchanging knowledge and experiences.

 The campaign would also share studies, review, research and publications for understanding and projecting situations to the larger audiences of the regional citizens and authorities

The campaign aims to aware and form a wide coalition of like-minded civil society and NGOs as well as community people on ill affects of small arms, the current flow of small arms and how it is fueling conflict, violence, and human rights abuse. The goals of the campaign will be to unite the citizens around issues related to proliferation of small arms and link them with the NGOs working on peace, disarmament, human rights issues and jointly put desired pressure on the authorities of each country to take proactive actions for controlling arms. In this regard the “Million face petition”, the “Women under Fire”, “Control Arms” and “Arms Trade Treaty” campaign can play a critical role during the rally and campaign to provide the multi dimensional nature of small arms issues such as relationship between SALW and development, business, education, health, disability, etc., to the citizens, NGOs, and government authorities and search for practical ways of curbing the flow of small arms in order to create a secure environment for development.

 The campaign also aims to promote a wider understanding of the various existing international charters and treaties relating to proliferation of SALW and how each country are implementing them. The united civil society would be developed to pressure the government in sharing information regarding small arms production, destruction, transfers, etc., especially those which will regulated by the agreements.

 Approach and Strategy:

In order to create a large publicity and show the linkage with cross border issues in SALW, a car rally will be organized. About 40 cars will travel from Afghanistan through Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and end in Myanmar.

10 cars will start from Kabul, 10 from Karachi, 10 from Colombo, and 10 from Kathmandu. The intersection of cars will be coordinated to reach at point in time, i.e., Kolkata and later 40 cars together will move onwards to Yangoon from Dhaka.

 Since the entire rally is geared towards creating awareness and uniting people together to raise voices, concerns and fight for government action, the interaction with people is extremely important. As a result, the cars while crossing important places will hold meetings with NGOs, community people, journalists, activists as well as organize press conferences. They will distribute leaflets,

posters to the people and take pictures for the “Million Faces” campaign. While crossing the border they will make the border force aware about the trafficking of arms. The cars will also show open-air videos on various ill-affects of arms on society using multi-media projector.

For effective mobilization of people, a pres briefing will be conducted before the launch. Awareness campaign particularly through media will also be done for making people aware about the event and the routes so that people can interact with the rally people. The civil society organizations together with community people in different places will organize receptions for the rally.

 Outcome:

The really is not merely for awareness creation. It is expected to develop solidarity and provide a sense of direction to the common people how to tackle this seemingly impossible task. The rally also is expected to develop interest among the citizens and would also link the people with various organizations who are engaged in controlling arms program in their country and regions so that they can share common concerns and raise voices together.

This large movement for peace and security is expected to create a strong pressure to lobby and advocate issues related to ill-affects of arms – particularly the “Arms Trade Treaty” and “UN PoA” to the government and the concern authorities.

 Activities:

1.                  Identification of a focal point in each country

2.                  Forming a rally organizing committee involving civil society organizations, youths, women groups, press, etc.

3.                  Contacting professional rally drivers and cars

4.                  Identification of potential corporate sponsors (Shell, Mobile, tyre companies, as well as other national and multinational companies can also be approached). Through this process these companies and their clients can also be engaged in the control arms process

5.                  Identification of routes maps within and connecting routes for border.

6.                  Identification of important locations for community meetings, open-air video show, press briefing, etc.

7.                  Appropriate Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials –posters, leaflets, booklet, press/media brief/kit, stickers, banners, festoons, documentary film, etc., will be developed for mass dissemination in coordination with other countries and network partners

 Timeframe:

 The rally would take about 20 days with various stop-overs in different places. To create interest 10 days of rally promotion will be conducted before the launch.

 The rally can be arranged after monsoon preferably in November or December.

 Budget:

 Individual focal points in different countries would prepare budget along with an action plan.