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The Small Arms Control Project, Viva Rio
COST Action A25 March, 2008
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Viva Rio

• Viva Rios main goal is to promote peace and
  development at the local level, creating means of
  overcoming urban armed violence and social
  exclusion. Viva Rio relies on the idea of human
  security as a guiding concept. It is believed
  that development, peace, security and human
  rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing

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Viva Rio

• Risk Group Youth is the main risk group for
  armed violence in Brazil and other Latin American
  countries. The group is mainly composed by poor
  teenagers and young males (15 to 24 years of age)
  that have dropped out of school before finishing
  elementary education. They are the main authors
  and victims of armed violence.
• Vector The main vector for the epidemics of
  urban violence in the region is the small arm and
  light weapon (SALW). Most homicides are committed
  with the use of a firearm. Heavily armed non
  state actors undermine democracy and civic
  culture at grassroots level, particularly in poor
  neighborhoods.
• Critical Areas The critical areas are favelas
  and urban peripheries, notorious for their
  vulnerability concerning public services, human,
  social and economic capital. A chaotic
  urbanization process aggravates the problem.
• Security Sector Reform the Security Sector
  Reform is critical for efficiency, as well as for
  integrating security, human rights and
  development goals.

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Viva Rio

• Viva Rios purpose is to research, design and
  test specific solutions that effectively deal
  with the complex set of problems at stake.
  Moreover, Viva Rios ultimate purpose is to
  promote those successful solutions through
  advocacy and communication strategies, for them
  to gain scale, become public policy and get
  replicated by the State, the market or other
  NGOs.

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The Small Arms Control Project of Viva Rio

• OBJECTIVES
• To reduce the demand for guns
• 2) To reduce the supply of guns
• To improve stockpile controls

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Campaigns / Events
React Rio!
Enough! I want peace
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Campaigns / Events
Its your weapon or me!
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Campaigns / Events

• 1999 Collection of 1,312,929 signatures to
  support small arms sale ban.
• 2001 public destruction of over 100,000 guns
  seized by the police,
  and 10.000 guns destroyed in 2002 and 2003

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Public Mobilization / Events
2003 Gun Free Campaign Rio de Janeiro,
September 14th 2003 50,000 gather in support of
a new gun control law to be voted by Congress.
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The new gun control law Disarmament Statute

• The Disarmament Statute was signed by President
  Lula on December 23rd, 2003.
• The right to carry a firearm by civilians is
  banned
• The purchase of a firearm is submitted to harsher
  requisites
• Federalization of a database on SALW
• Marking of ammunition sold to public and national
  security forces
• National voluntary buy-back campaign
• National referendum in October 2005 on the
  prohibition of firearm and ammunition sales to
  civilians.

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The buy-back campaign - 1

• How did it work?
• Amnesty anyone could hand in a registered,
  non-registered, or illegal gun, and had received
  a financial compensation.
• Anonymity no questions were asked by the police
• Reimbursement from R 100 to R 300 (US 30 to
  US 100), depending on the caliber of the gun, to
  be paid in 30 days.
• Destruction guns were destroyed by the army 48
  hours after they got through legal ballistics
  exam. At Viva Rios collection posts, guns were
  smashed on the spot with a hammer, after having
  been carefully classified and registered.
• Where?
• Federal Police Stations, Civil Police Stations,
  Army Headquarters.
• Civil Society Posts Viva Rio has received guns
  in its headquarters and in partnership with other
  organizations, especially churches. At total,
  Viva Rio had 59 collection posts and two mobile
  units, which visited different neighborhoods in
  Rio, its metropolitan region and other regions
  within the State. Viva Rio trained over 400
  churches in the country to open collection posts.

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The buy-back campaign - 2

• How many guns were collected?
• Governments original goal was of 80.000 guns
  handed in until December 23, 2004.
• Actual results number of guns collected until
  October 2005
• Brazil 459 855 guns
• Viva Rio 11,976 guns
• 90 of the guns were in working condition.

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Partial conclusions / results
Health Ministry Research 2005 Number of deaths
per firearm in 2003 39,325 Number of deaths per
firearm in 2004 36,091 Decrease of 8,2, after
13 years of constant increase 3,234 lives were
saved in the first year of the Statutes
Implementation Due to two main reasons
Prohibition to carry guns buy-back campaign
Health Ministry Research 2007 In 2005 and 2006
the number of deaths per firearm continued to
fall. There was a 12 decrease in gun-related
deaths from 2003 to 2006. This study shows
that, when taking into account the trend toward
increasing gun-related deaths over the last three
years, the impact of such measures was a saving
of 23,961 lives, or a reduction of 24 in
gun-related deaths.
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Impact of SALW at Youth in Brazil

Youth at risk Firearm-related mortality rate in
Brazil for 15-29 year olds is between 3 to 5
times the general average.
Male
Female
Fonte ISER/DATASUS. Ano 2002
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Group at risk homicide victims by years of
study (drop outs from school between 4th and 7th
grade)
Fonte Boletins de Ocorrência, Polícia Civil de
Resende, pesquisa ISER.
This is a new generation, born and
socialized in urban poverty / social exclusion
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Isolating the group of risk macro programmes
for at risk youth
Fast track education from 4th to 8th grade
level . Over 60.000 students have gone through
VR class rooms
Arts
Computer training, Internet
Preparation for job
sports
NGO experimentation needs to become public
policy market or state are to give it large
scale
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Gender Approach Anna Mary

• Special attention to early pregnancy and
  motherhood to avoid school drop out, exposure to
  the culture of violence and to recover life
  perspective.
• (Anna community health agent woman Mary
  pregnant girl and teenage mother)
• Projects Approach
• Gender Education / Family Planning / Sexually
  Transmitted Diseases Prevention Classes.
• Projects Activities
• Mutual Support Groups Personal Support Baby
  Space in the Classroom Production of Pedagogical
  Material and Training of teachers and community
  agents.

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Viva Rio Ilona Szabó de Carvalho (Human Security
Program) ilona_at_vivario.org.br Mayra
Jucá (communications projects) mayra_at_vivario.rg.br
www.comunidadsegura.org www.vivario.org.br
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