Our Objectives

• Foster binding international standards that control the supply of weapons and promote initiatives that reduce the demand for conventional weapons
• Promote stronger and more transparent military export controls
• Support Canadian and international implementation of the UN Programme of Action on small arms
• Draw attention to the links between armed-violence reduction and development

Our Recent Initiatives

• 2011
  In December, the Control Arms Coalition, of which Ploughshares is a member, launched Speak Out, a popular mobilization campaign, aimed at gaining support for the Arms Trade Treaty, which is being negotiated in July 2012.
  In August , Program Officer Maribel Gonzales completed her  term as Co-Chair of the International Advisory Council (IAC)  of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA),  the global movement against gun violence, linking civil society organizations working to stop the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons. Consisting of members from the network, the IAC is the new governing body for IANSA. It advises the Board and Secretariat on strategy and activity planning. Maribel was also a member of the Working Group that helped guide IANSA’s transition to improved governance structures as recommended in the 2009 Evaluation of IANSA.
  In June, Senior Program Officer Kenneth Epps was elected as one of four Co-Chairs of the Control Arms Coalition Steering Board (CACSB). Operating as an Executive Committee, the Co-Chairs liaise with the newly appointed Control Arms Coalition Secretariat in New York to ensure implementation of the decisions of the CACSB between its international meetings. With the Arms Trade Treaty negotiation conference approaching in mid-2012 in New York, the international NGO coalition will need to strengthen its efforts in the next year to advance productive treaty negotiations.
  In May, Kenneth Epps attended MGE 2011 at the United Nations in New York. The Open-Ended Meeting of Governmental Experts discussed implementation of the International Tracing Instrument associated with the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons. Experts from UN member states, including Canada, shared experiences and challenges of small arms marking, record-keeping and tracing, and explored opportunities for mutual assistance to strengthen state action in these areas.
  In April, Ploughshares co-hosted with the Caribbean Coalition on Development and the Reduction of Armed Violence (CDRAV) and CARICOM IMPACS a Roundtable on Firearms Legislation in Barbados. The workshop was attended by participants from 12 CARICOM states including legal experts, the CARICOM General Counsel, IMPACS officials and civil society representatives. The discussions focused on four key issues identified by the participants: definition, licensing, offences and penalties. The final statement of the workshop outlined a detailed strategy for the standardization of firearms legislation in all CARICOM member states that takes into account the due process for introducing legislation for harmonization at the CARICOM Secretariat
  In February, Project Ploughshares officially launched the three-year project Strengthening CARICOM Cooperation to Reduce Gun Crime to help combat gun violence and gun crime in the Caribbean.

• 2010
  In November, Program Officer Maribel Gonzales and Project Officer Christina Woolner attended a workshop on private security companies in the Caribbean in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, as part of the project Strengthening CARICOM Cooperation to Reduce Gun Crime.
  In November, Project Ploughshares partnered with Oxfam Quebec to host an Arms Trade Treaty briefing on Parliament Hill. MPs Paul Dewar, Johanne Deschamps and Bob Rae, the opposition critics on foreign affairs, co-sponsored the event and provided commentary following panel presentations.
  In October, Senior Program Officer Kenneth Epps attended the United Nations First Committee meetings discussing issues of disarmament and international security.
  In July, Kenneth Epps participated in the first week of the United Nations Preparatory Committee meetings in New York, held to lay the groundwork for an international conference to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty scheduled for summer of 2012.
  In July, Kenneth Epps gave a talk on the role of the NGO community in ATT negotiations during the Preparatory Regional Workshop on Negotiations for an Arms Trade Treaty held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
  In June, Maribel Gonzales attended the United Nations Biennial Meeting of States on small arms in New York.
  In May, during the Global Week of Action against Gun Violence, Project Ploughshares and the local chapter Project Ploughshares Calgary co-hosted a screening of the documentary film Devil's Bargain: A Journey into the Arms Trade followed by a Q & A.
  In February, Project Ploughshares co-hosted two ATT roundtables, attended by government officials and civil society representatives, in Washington and in Cape Town.
  In February, Senior Program Officer Kenneth Epps participated in meetings in Vienna to advance global civil society support for an effective ATT.
  In January, Associate Executive Director Nancy Regehr and Kenneth Epps, in collaboration with CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, the University of West Indies and the Caribbean Coalition for Development and the Reduction of Armed Violence, convened the "Regional Workshop to Advance Caribbean Action on Small Arms" at the University of West Indies in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.