Mr. Speaker, this week the 114th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union is being held in Kenya.
Many subjects will be debated there, including environmental management and combating global degradation of the environment, promoting effective ways of combating violence against women, and strengthening the control of trafficking in small arms and light weapons.
Over 600 million small arms and light weapons are now circulating in the world, and a good many of them are being used in the wars raging in Africa, particularly in countries with natural resources such as diamonds and petroleum. These countries do not manufacture weapons. The weapons come from elsewhere, for the sole purpose of supplying these wars.
Oxfam launched a 100-day campaign last March to mobilize against and denounce armed violence in the world. Light weapons kill over 800 persons every day. There is no international agreement to combat the sale of arms.
The federal government must denounce these violations of human rights at the UN summit on small arms and light weapons in June.