Campaign events in 2004

Control Arms took to a global stage in January, at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, attended by around 100,000 people. After the Forum’s six days campaigners had collected more than 8000 photos and portraits for the Million Faces petition.

In February, Guns and Policing: Standards to Prevent Misuse, a report written by Amnesty International for the Control Arms campaign, set out what governments should be doing to control the use of guns by their police forces.

Further research in the Guns or Growth report revealed how major arms exporting governments break their promises on arms sales by failing to assess the impact such exports are having on poverty. As a result, arms sales are being authorised which are diverting much needed resources away from areas such as health and education, as well as undermining the security and human rights of the population.

Gun Destruction Day on 9 June saw thousands of people all over the world take action to tackle the gun problem head-on. In Cambodia, a flame of peace ceremony was held and 4000 illegal and surplus weapons destroyed. In Brazil 6,500 illegal firearms confiscated by police were destroyed by Viva Rio, the Brazilian Army, and the Rio state government. In South Africa gun control groups worked with the government to publicly destroy a cache of illegal arms and in the UK, families who had lost their children to armed violence used a steamroller to crush 300 symbolic guns in London.

At the Cambodian Water Festival in February, Control Arms supporters gathered more than 6000 new names for the Million Faces petition, bringing the total number of Cambodian sign ups to an amazing 83,000. Five of the teams of rowers were supporting the campaign. Wearing red and white Control Arms t-shirts and bearing Control Arms banners, all five teams raced magnificently. They were easy to spot with huge banners displaying "Control Arms" and 'trev krup krong avuth oy ban' – in Khmer, which means 'We must Control Arms.'

In a huge victory for the campaign, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced UK government support for the Arms Trade Treaty on 30 September, and two months later, a group of Nobel Peace Laureates restated their support for the initiative.