[url]www.billionmommarch.org/[/url]
Billion Mom March & Million Mom March
PRESS CONFERENCE
Date and Time: Thursday 10 May 2001 - 1:00pm
Place: Room 226, United Nations Secretariat Building
Mother's Day 2001 marks the launch of worldwide mobilization of a billion mothers,
grandmothers, and mothers-to-be against gun- and other violence in what is
expected to become the largest mass movement in human history.
PARTICIPANTS:
Under Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala, UN Dept. of
Disarmament, designated by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the UN focal
point on small arms
Donna Dees Thomases, founder of the Million Mom March, USA
Mary Leigh Blek, President of the Million Mom March, USA
Elvi Ruottinen, spokesperson for the Billion Mom March
Present, also, representatives of the International Action Network on
Small Arms (IANSA), Women of Vision and Action (WOVA), and other
members of the Women's Caucus on Small Arms.
The Billion Mom March initiative was born in March in the Women's Caucus
on Small Arms during the Prep-Com meetings of the UN Conference on Illicit
Trade of Small Arms in All its Aspects.
The first Million Mom March took place last year in the United States. More
that a million mothers participated nationwide demanding safer gun laws,
including 750,000 on the National Mall in Washington, DC. This year the
Million Mom March will visit legislators in 33 State Capitols, stage a
cybermarch, and is conducting a letter-writing campaign to ask the mothers
and wives of President Bush and congressional leaders to impress on their
sons and husbands the importance of safer gun laws.
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