Looking for final justice,

Jane Gabriel — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:58:55 +0000

I attended the session on The Impact of Guns on Women's Lives, hosted by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and IANSA the International Action Network on Small Arms. The panel of women speakers came from Argentina, the DRC, Iraq, Canada and India. Binalakshmi Nepram is a young woman from India and founder of Control Arms Foundation of India. She opened her speech by saying " This is my first address to the United Nations, a place where everyone comes for final justice." She dedicated her speech to the 5000 women who have died by gun violence in her region by state and non-state actors, and went on to say "My very presence here is proof that women are taking action to stop gun violence". She spoke of her pain as a young woman born in the country that gave birth to non violence and is today the largest democracy in the world, knowing that India is "arming itself to the teeth" and has 40 million fire arms, the majority of which are in private hands. She'd recently attended an arms bazaar in New Delhi where one of the 450 arms dealers had told her that in India "gun shops are mushrooming like phone booths".

On February 6th this year CAFI demanded that the Indian parliament redraft the country's gun legislation so that only one gun per home is allowed (currently men can have three because they can buy them in the name of their wife and son) and that when a man wants to buy a gun licence the consent of the woman and other householders he lives with must first be obtained. She spoke too of the Coalition of Gun Survivors Network which is now opening bank accounts for women so that they can start to earn their own living and of women "meeting with new found courage."

Binalakshmi said that "if you think gun disarmament is conferences and diplomacy you are wrong". While acting to end gun violence at the grassroots and parliamentary levels in her own country, she had come to the UN seeking "final justice". Days inside the UN can feel like weeks and the bureaucracy enough to make you comatose, but amidst this sealed off world, voices are sometimes raised that pierce the atmosphere. Binalakshmi Nepram's was one such voice.

open Democracy News Analysis - Looking for final justice, - Comments

Looking for final justice,