From the front line
Over one million people from around the world have called for an end to the unregulated arms trade by adding their name to the Million Faces Petition.
Here, retired Brigadier General Robin Gagnon explains his first-hand experience of the devastating impact of uncontrolled weapons proliferation, and why he strongly believes in the need for an Arms Trade Treaty.
I went to the UN in October 2007 with the Control Arms team to support a cause in which I am a firm believer, the need for a global Arms Trade Treaty. My belief in such a treaty stems from having seen from a first hand perspective the devastating effects of weapons proliferation in Haiti while I was there as the UN Force Commander.
When military people like me and my colleagues are sent overseas, our expectations are usually two-fold. First, we want to serve for a valid cause. Secondly, we want to make a difference and to achieve meaningful results in terms of security and stability. And more importantly, we want these results to become the platform on which peace has to be built.
The people of Haiti deserve to have a share of the healthy and wealthy way of life that humanity has been able to generate in our modern times. Yet weapons proliferation and weapons in the hands of criminal have too often frustrated our collective efforts towards providing ordinary people with dignity, security and hope for a better future.
In places like Cité Soleil, local police stations were sometimes outgunned by various criminals who would not hesitate to shoot and kill anyone trying to oppose them.
I believe it is fair to say that the magnitude of the problem in large cities can be such that weapons proliferation has denied Haitian people the right to live freely and safely. And the sad reality is the fact that many, if not most of the victims, have been innocent civilians.
Weapon proliferation degrades security down to a non-acceptable level, it keeps investors away, it undermines the democratic process, it spreads and amplifies human suffering, it lowers public confidence towards institutions, and in the case of Haiti it interferes with the development of the National Police.
I strongly believe in the need for weapons to only exist within a legitimate framework of accountability and governance. And I believe that the Control Arms Campaign, which I am proud to be supporting, will do just that.
I urge the nations of the world, through the United 
Nations, to make the Arms Trade Treaty a reality.
