IFOR

At the beginning of April an overwhelmingly United Nations General Assembly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade. For more than a decade, peace movements and human rights organizations around the world struggled to obtain an Arms Trade Treaty. About 2,000 people die in the world every day because of the effects of small arms and light weapons and this business is worth $70 billion. Only Iran, Syria and North Korea voted against the treaty that finally seeks to regulate it and to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

Jon Bergeå, in charge of small arms work at the Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation expresses his satisfaction: “For the first time we have an internationally binding agreement governing the trade of conventional arms.

On the weekend of April 12-14, 30 representatives from 11 different European IFOR member organizations gathered in Cardiff, Wales for the annual EUFOR meeting, hosted by Arfon Rhys and Cymdeithas y Cymod (FOR Wales).

With the centennial celebration approaching, a good part of the meeting was focused on ways to prepare Konstanz 2014.

Today, Madagascar is going through an unprecedented socio- political crisis. The main cause of this problem is of political nature. The country has suffered from a military coup in March 2009, leading to the overthrow of the then president of the Republic Marc Ravalomana, and to a new regime, the High Authority of Transition.

On 15 April the third Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) took place. Peace groups all over the world have raised awareness about the large sums of money that governments spend on the military every year. Among these peace groups were several IFOR members. The following are some inspiring examples of activities and actions from our friends.