[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.

                                                             - x -