Today I attended the Scottish launch of Amnesty’s campaign to secure bulletproof arms treaty – something we strongly support.
Tightening control on weapons that cause suffering and misery is clearly morally the right thing to do. But it’s also the best way of tackling a key root cause of the refugee problem.
Bottom line – a world where fewer people can get their hands on small arms is also a world where there are fewer refugees.
Sign up, save lives
We need to tackle the root causes of violence forcing people to seek safety on our shores. The creation of an Arms Trade Treaty is essential to achieving this. And that’s why we’re behind Amnesty International Scotland all the way on this. You can give your support too.
Arms trade – not economic factors – force people from their countries seeking asylum
Insurgencies, civil war, the breakdown of law and order, state oppression, armed militias and death squads – are all fuelled by the vicious trade in small arms.
And it is these things, not economic factors, as many misperceive, which drive people out of their countries and lead them to claim asylum in places like Britain.
Many of the estimated 15.4 million refugees worldwide have fled human rights violations caused by armed violence – and this doesn’t even include the 27 and a half million people displaced in their own country by armed conflict.
We see the lives destroyed by unregulated arms trade
We support, men, women and children who have fled their country seeking asylum in Scotland. And we see the direct human impact of an irresponsible, unregulated arms trade on the people who walk through our door. Whether that be at the hands of militia in Congo, or the fall-out of conflict in Sudan.
Shockingly in areas of conflict, jail or refugee camps women and girls are often raped at gunpoint. In a recent study (PDF) we conducted into violence experienced by newly arrived women seeking asylum in Glasgow, 7 out of 10 women had faced physical or sexual violence. 1 in 2 by someone who was not their partner. One Sudanese woman told us:
“I was raped by a militant. I fell pregnant as a result. My older child came from this incident. I was 19 years old at the time.”
Let’s join forces to stop the suffering. Sign the arms petition on Amnesty’s website today.
