The production and trading of military equipment is of profound concern for the churches.
 
This came out clearly during the ongoing 3rd Ecumenical Conference on Arms Trade on 7-9th October at the Desmond Tutu Ecumenical Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
 
The conference was officially opened by The AACC Programmes Director, Mr Arthur Shoo, and the inauguration was done by the International President of the Gothenburg Process, Bishop William Kenney from the UK. The Gothenburg Process is an ecumenical initiative to create a meeting place for dialogue between the main stakeholders of the arms trade issues: producers, users and the civil society.
 
The focus of the conference, which gathered 30 church leaders and experts on arms trade from 14 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, is the Churches responsibility to work for a legally binding global arms trade treaty. There is a process already taking place for such an Arms Trade Treaty, and during the conference it was clear that the churches can and should contribute much more to this work.
 
The conference took place in Africa, Nairobi, this time, to broaden the participation from churches and organisations in Africa. Churches in Africa have a lot of experience of how armed violence affect communities, and some of them are deeply involved in community-based disarmament. Rev Denis Matsolo of the Christian Council of Mozambique shared about how the churches in Mozambique have played a major role in collecting and transforming guns into peaceful artwork.
 
Lt Gen Lazaro K Subeiywo (Rtd) from the Moi Africa Institute gave a presentation on the changing role of the Armed forces in Africa, and Ms Augusta Muchai, Institute for Security Studies in Kenya, gave an overview of armed conflicts in Africa.
 
The last day of the conference will be devoted to strategizing and planning for a more profound church response to the ethical challenges posed by the arms trade. This will be done in dialogue with other faith communities including the Muslim community whose representatives included among others Mr Mustafa Y Ali from the World Conference for Religions for Peace, Africa.

(The press release was published in some local papers in Nairobi, as well as broadcasted on local TV- and Radio stations).