Arms Reduction Coalition
Encyclopedia
The Arms Reduction Coalition (ARC) is a United Kingdom
-based non-profit non-governmental organization
which campaigns for a reduction in the resources spent on arms and the military and for those resources to be divereted to programmes that benefit humanity and the earth; such as poverty reduction
, sustainable development
, protecting the vulnerable, systems for peaceful Conflict resolution
and maintaining the environment.
The Arms Reduction Coalition (ARC) is a calling for the United Nations
(UN) to agree a legally binding instrument requiring United Nations member states
to reduce the amount of resources spent on arms by between 1 and 5 percent per year for a period of 10 to 25 years. This is based on Article 26 of the United Nations Charter
which states "In order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources, the UN Security Council shall be responsible for formulating…, plans to be submitted to the Members of the United Nations for the establishment of a system for the regulation of Armaments".
in London.
ARC campaigns to encourage the states of the United Nations to 'Implement Article 26 of the UN Charter' by reducing the diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources by a set percentage each year. This policy is or has been advocated by other organisations such as the International Peace Bureau
, World Bank
1, some members of the United Nations (such as France in 1955, The Soviet Union in 1956, Brazil in 1964, by Romania in 1975 and 1977 and Senegal in 1978) and The General Assembly (in 1973 as Resolution 3093); usually under the principle of Disarmanent for Development [2,3]. The idea can be traced back [4] to 1955 when the French Prime Minister Edgar Faure
tabled a plan at a meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission[5]; proposing the "progressive reduction of military expenditures and the potential reallocation of the resources thus released to tasks of 'development' and 'mutual assistance' in order to improve the standard of living of the developing countries".
, Peter Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell
, Alice Mahon
, Federico Mayor
Zaragoza, Linda Melvern
.
Individuals and organisations from around the world are encouraged to join ARC by endorsing the ARC Resolution or becoming a member. Organisations from all continents have endorsed the ARC resolution http://www.arcuk.org/pages/supporters.htm. Similar resolutions have been adopted by other groups http://www.arcuk.org/pages/some_arc__resolutions.htm such as United Nations Association UK, The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century, German Party of Democratic Socialism and Greenpeace
.
. Supporters and members are requested endorse this resolution.
The Arms Reduction Coalition (ARC):
"Concerned by the obstacles, threats and difficulties that the large amounts of arms in circulation pose to the maintenance of peace and security and to Non-Governmental Organisations and UN departments in carrying out their work;
Concerned by the disproportionately large amount of the world’s human and economic resources being expended on arms;
Recalling that Article 26 of the United Nations (UN) Charter calls for "the least diversion for Armaments of the world’s human and economic resources";
Calls upon the United Nations General assembly, to agree, and for all signatory States of The United Nations to ratify, a legally binding instrument:
Attribution ShareAlike licence) include:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based non-profit non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
which campaigns for a reduction in the resources spent on arms and the military and for those resources to be divereted to programmes that benefit humanity and the earth; such as poverty reduction
Poverty reduction
Poverty is the state of human beings who are poor. That is, they have little or no material means of surviving—little or no food, shelter, clothes, healthcare, education, and other physical means of living and improving one's life....
, sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
, protecting the vulnerable, systems for peaceful Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...
and maintaining the environment.
The Arms Reduction Coalition (ARC) is a calling for the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
(UN) to agree a legally binding instrument requiring United Nations member states
United Nations member states
There are 193 United Nations member states, and each of them is a member of the United Nations General Assembly.The criteria for admission of new members are set out in the United Nations Charter, Chapter II, Article 4, as follows:...
to reduce the amount of resources spent on arms by between 1 and 5 percent per year for a period of 10 to 25 years. This is based on Article 26 of the United Nations Charter
United Nations Charter
The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the international organization called the United Nations. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries...
which states "In order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources, the UN Security Council shall be responsible for formulating…, plans to be submitted to the Members of the United Nations for the establishment of a system for the regulation of Armaments".
History
ARC was formally launched at a meeting organised by Action for UN Renewal on 7 May 2002 at the House of CommonsBritish House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
in London.
ARC campaigns to encourage the states of the United Nations to 'Implement Article 26 of the UN Charter' by reducing the diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources by a set percentage each year. This policy is or has been advocated by other organisations such as the International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau is the world's oldest international peace federation. It was founded in 1891, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910....
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
1, some members of the United Nations (such as France in 1955, The Soviet Union in 1956, Brazil in 1964, by Romania in 1975 and 1977 and Senegal in 1978) and The General Assembly (in 1973 as Resolution 3093); usually under the principle of Disarmanent for Development [2,3]. The idea can be traced back [4] to 1955 when the French Prime Minister Edgar Faure
Edgar Faure
Edgar Faure was a French politician, essayist, historian, and memoirist.-Career:Faure was born in Béziers, Languedoc-Roussillon. He trained as a lawyer in Paris and became a member of the Bar at 27, the youngest lawyer in France to do so at the time...
tabled a plan at a meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission[5]; proposing the "progressive reduction of military expenditures and the potential reallocation of the resources thus released to tasks of 'development' and 'mutual assistance' in order to improve the standard of living of the developing countries".
Membership
ARC's Patrons include Dennis Haliday, Bruce KentBruce Kent
Bruce Kent is a British political activist and a former Roman Catholic priest. Active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , he was the organisation's general secretary from 1980 to 1985 and its chair from 1987 to 1990...
, Peter Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell
Peter Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell
Peter Kingsley Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell, PC , is a Labour Party member of the House of Lords.He was previously the Member of Parliament for Rowley Regis and Tipton and for Warley West, having first been elected in the 1966 general election until his leaving the House of Commons at the 1992...
, Alice Mahon
Alice Mahon
Alice Mahon is a British former Labour Party politician and trade unionist.She was Member of Parliament for Halifax from 1987 until 2005. She is a left-winger who was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and is a Eurosceptic...
, Federico Mayor
Federico Mayor
Federico Mayor Zaragoza is a Spanish scientist, scholar, politician, diplomat and poet. He served as Director-General of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999.He is currently the Chairman of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and member of the Honorary Board of the International Decade for the Promotion of...
Zaragoza, Linda Melvern
Linda Melvern
Linda Melvern is a British investigative journalist. For several years she worked for The Sunday Times , including on the investigative Insight Team. Since leaving the newspaper she has written six books of non-fiction and is widely published in the British press and academic journals...
.
Individuals and organisations from around the world are encouraged to join ARC by endorsing the ARC Resolution or becoming a member. Organisations from all continents have endorsed the ARC resolution http://www.arcuk.org/pages/supporters.htm. Similar resolutions have been adopted by other groups http://www.arcuk.org/pages/some_arc__resolutions.htm such as United Nations Association UK, The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century, German Party of Democratic Socialism and Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
.
ARC resolution
ARC's campaign is driven by this United Nations style resolutionResolution (law)
A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion. For long or important motions, though, it is often better to have them written out so that discussion is easier or so that it can be...
. Supporters and members are requested endorse this resolution.
The Arms Reduction Coalition (ARC):
"Concerned by the obstacles, threats and difficulties that the large amounts of arms in circulation pose to the maintenance of peace and security and to Non-Governmental Organisations and UN departments in carrying out their work;
Concerned by the disproportionately large amount of the world’s human and economic resources being expended on arms;
Recalling that Article 26 of the United Nations (UN) Charter calls for "the least diversion for Armaments of the world’s human and economic resources";
Calls upon the United Nations General assembly, to agree, and for all signatory States of The United Nations to ratify, a legally binding instrument:
- a) for reducing the diversion for Armaments of their State’s human and economic resources by between one and five percent per year;
- b) to establish and maintain systems that enable annual independent verification and auditing of their States compliance;
- c) to establish a United Nations mechanism to facilitate implementation; dealing with such matters as non-compliance, concessions, reporting and auditing standards, and the publication of targets and achievements annually;
- d) that specifies how amounts diverted from Armaments are to be used on State and UN programmes such as poverty reduction, sustainable development, conflict prevention, peaceful resolution of conflict, protecting the vulnerable, maintaining the environment; and effective and efficient implementation of the legally binding Instrument;
- e) that gives full opportunities to non-governmental organisations and other non state actors to make their contributions in implementation, compliance and allocation of resources;
- f) that requires review and re-commitment by the States to the legally binding Instrument after a period of between 10 and 25 years."
-
- The ARC Resolution has been translated into several languages http://www.arcuk.org/trans/trans_index.htm.
ARC publications
Some publications distributed by ARC (under the Creative CommonsCreative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
Attribution ShareAlike licence) include:
- ARC Petitionhttp://www.arcuk.org/pages/petition%204.htm
- Arms No More by Vijay Mehta, is a comprehensive study of small arms, light weapons and weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, biological and chemical. It outlines global efforts to develop and implement effective projects to limit the use and spread of small arms, which stands as a critical challenge to human security.
- ARC Music http://www.arcuk.org/pages/arc_music.htm
- ARC Peace Quotes by Aray - ARC speeches set to originally composed World music. Includes ARC introduction & resolution, Quotes on the UN and armaments, help to advance ARC, some ARC voices, Spider & the Fly, Spider & the Fly Dub, (70 minutes)
- ARC: The UN and Africa by Aray - ARC speeches set to new specifically composed World music. Includes Blood Run Done; Cease, Now Peace - Origins, Blood Run Done; Cease, Now Peace - International Year, The UN is in Crisis over Africa (Preamble & Introduction, 1 Give Up Armies, 2 Stem The Tide - End the Conflicts Now, 3 Prosecute the Guilty, 4 Collect and Destroy the Weapons, 5 Effectively Implement Sanctions - Supplies to and Resources from Conflict Areas, 6 Reduce resources spent on arms, 7 Implement UN Resolutions, 8 Reform the UN Conference on Disarmament (CD), 9 Get More Women Leaders, Summary), Some ARC Voices - Remix (74 minutes)