7/3/2006

Oxfam Cymru is marking International Women's Day by calling upon women in Wales to show solidarity with women from across the globe in the fight for stricter regulation of the arms trade.

Whilst the majority of those who make, sell, buy and misuse weapons are men, it is generally women across the world that are paying the price with their bodies, their homes and their lives. With a 99 per cent. increase in gun crime reported in Wales in the five years to 2004, women are increasingly at risk of becoming victims of gun crime in this country.

Internationally, having a gun in the home increases the overall
risk of someone in the household being murdered by 41 per cent., but for women the risk nearly triples to 272 per cent.

Gwenllian Griffiths, from Oxfam Cymru, said; "We all know that when there are guns in the home or guns in the community,
people are more likely to die. We need tougher controls on the arms trade to stop weapons getting into the hands of criminals. An international Arms Trade Treaty would outlaw sales of arms that could be used in violent crime.

"1,000 people die each day across the world as a result of arms. 2006 is a critical year in the quest to halt the flood of guns and we're asking women to join us and demand that the UK Government takes action at the global level."

Oxfam Cymru, Amnesty International in Wales and IANSA are jointly running the Control Arms Campaign, which is lobbying the UK Government to champion an Arms Trade Treaty. Welsh women can support this campaign by joining the Million Faces Petition, a global photo petition, at www.controlarms.org or by texting the word PETITION along with your FULL NAME to 84118.