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Small Arms & Light Weapons

Arms Availability and Human Rights Conference Materials

On February 21-22, 2002, the University of Minnesota's Human Rights Program hosted the Arms Availability and Human Rights Conference – a gathering of international interdisciplinary experts in closed and public sessions to discuss questions related to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and the implications for human rights.

Conference participants included

  • Peter Batchelor – Project Director for Small Arms Survey.
  • Mary Leigh Blek – National President of the Million Mom March, which united with the Brady Campaign and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in October 2001. Mary Leigh began her crusade against gun violence in 1994, after her 21-year old son Matthew was shot with a Saturday Night Special.
  • Barbara Frey – Director of the Human Rights Program, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, and an alternate member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
  • Peter Herby – Coordinator of the Mines-Arms Unit for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  • Joost R. Hiltermann – Executive director of the Arms Division of Washington-based Human Rights Watch.
  • Don Hubert – Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
  • Colin Kahl – Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota.
  • Amy Klobuchar – Hennepin County Attorney, Minnesota
  • Andrew Latham – Professor of Political Science, Macalester College
  • Ed Laurance – Professor and the Director of the Program for Security and Development, Monterey Institute of International Studies and he also serves as a consultant with the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs.
  • Lora Lumpe – Editor of Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms (New York: St. Martins Press, 2000) and a researcher and campaigner on weapons trade and human rights. Lumpe has consulted for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers, among others.
  • Ann Markusen – Professor at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota and the director of its Urban and Regional Affairs Planning Program. She is the author of Disarming the Future (Council on Foreign Relations: 1998).
  • Colin Roberts – Head of Community Affairs, Crime Policy & Justice, Directorate Surrey Police Headquarters, UK.
  • Kathryn Sikkink – Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota
  • Pierre Sob – Coordinator of the International Economic Framework and Trade Group, Research and Right to Development Branch in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and based in Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Rebecca Thoman – Executive Director of Citizens for a Safer Minnesota
  • David Weissbrodt – Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Center, University of Minnesota. Weissbrodt is also a member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
  • Brian Wood – Coordinator of work on arms of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London, UK.
  • Leila Zerrougui – Judge and Algerian member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Conference Minutes

Session I – "Where are we now?" (PDF)
Session II – Barbara Frey’s working paper and reaction from participants (PDF)
Session III – "Where should we be headed?" (PDF)
Session IV – "How do we get there?" (PDF)