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9 days to an Arms Trade Treaty?

Just 9 days are left until the end of negotiations to produce the world’s first legally binding Arms Trade Treaty. Can we maintain pressure on governments to secure a strong Treaty that actually makes a difference?

In “A Short Film About Guns” Oxfam’s Louis Belanger teams up with Greek-Cypriot director Minos Papas, providing a chilling insight into the illegal arms trade and how it functions across the globe. This is a sobering reminder that an effective Arms Trade Treaty is long overdue.

The short film features four experts on arms trafficking who recount their varying first hand experiences with the black market trade in areas of conflict and how the illegal flow of weapons facilitates loss of life and devastation: Kathi Lynn Austin, arms trafficking investigator; Ishmael Beah, former Sierra Leonean child soldier, author of “A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a Boy Soldier”; Paul Conroy, Sunday Times war photographer, recently injured while working in Syria and Stuart Franklin Platt, retired Rear Admiral US Navy.

The film is a fantastic insight into the complex global networks that allow arms to fall into the hands of human rights abusers and repressive regimes around the world and how an ATT could help. Watch the film to find out more and share!

Sign the petition for a strong, legally binding Arms Trade Treaty

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Doris*, daughter, 5; Pamila*, 2. Christina grows maize and she was shown how to make compost as part of the CRAFS (Climate Resilient Agriculture and Food Systems) programme.
 
The Presbyterian Agriculture Station, Garu (PAS-G) is Oxfam's partner in the Upper East Region of Ghana. They're currently implementing CRAFS in a number of communities, including Tambalug (compost making) and Kpatua (solar) 12 and 13 July 2017.
 
Christina said:
 
“With the money, I want to look after my children: their health, their upkeep, that’s what I’ll be spending the money on. I’ll also invest some money on the farm this year. [Farming] It’s hard work [ she giggles] but if you get a good harvest it’s very nice. The only thing is, if you work hard and don’t get a good harvest then it’s not good. [Harvest] is my favourite time when you see the crops are ripe, it’s good. It’s [the only time] that she knows that what she has put in, she’ll get something out of it.”
 
“I’m 23, I have 2 children, they are 2 and 5, a boy and a girl. I want them to go to school, to do well in school and get good jobs and live well. I dropped out of school and got married, I want my children to do better. With hindsight, I should have stayed at school. Now, I think I’m not gainfully employed and I could have done better. So I want my children to maximise opportunities and be better off.”
 
“Poverty is when one is helpless. Poverty is when one doesn’t have enough food and you don’t have money to buy the food. Poverty is when you don’t have something to cover yourself. You don’t have the means to get what you want, to lead a normal">

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