he Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 takes an integrated approach to the complex and volatile dynamics of armed GENEVA T violence around the world. Drawing on comprehensive country- DECLARATION level data, including both conflict-related and criminal violence, it estimates that at least 526,000 people die violently every year, more than three-quarters of them in non-conflict settings. It highlights that the 58 countries with high rates of lethal violence account for two- thirds of all violent deaths, and shows that one-quarter of all violent GLOBAL deaths occur in just 14 countries, seven of which are in the Americas. New research on femicide also reveals that about 66,000 women GLOBAL BURDEN VIOLENCE and girls are violently killed around the world each year. 2 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 This volume also assesses the linkages between violent death rates and socio-economic development, demonstrating that homicide rates are higher wherever income disparity, extreme poverty, and hunger are high. It challenges the use of simple analytical classifications and policy responses, and offers researchers and policy-makers new tools for studying and tackling different forms of violence. of ARMED VIOLENCE o f ARMED BURDEN Photos Top left: Rescuers evacuate a wounded person from Utoeya, Norway, July 2011. © Morten Edvarsen/AFP Photo Lethal Centre left: Morgue workers transport a coffin to be buried along with other unidentified bodies found in mass graves, Durango, Mexico, June 2011. © Jorge Valenzuela/Reuters Encounters Bottom right: An armed fighter walks past a burnt-out armed vehicle in the Abobo 2011 district of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, March 2010. © Issouf Sanogo/AFP Photo Centre right: A protester runs from a burning police booth in front of the Interior Ministry in Cairo, Egypt, June 2011. © Mohamed Abd El-Ghany/Reuters www.genevadeclaration.org ISBN 978-1-107-60679-1 GENEVA DECLARATION www.genevadeclaration.org he Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 takes an integrated approach to the complex and volatile dynamics of armed GENEVA T violence around the world. Drawing on comprehensive country- DECLARATION level data, including both conflict-related and criminal violence, it estimates that at least 526,000 people die violently every year, more than three-quarters of them in non-conflict settings. It highlights that the 58 countries with high rates of lethal violence account for two- thirds of all violent deaths, and shows that one-quarter of all violent GLOBAL deaths occur in just 14 countries, seven of which are in the Americas. New research on femicide also reveals that about 66,000 women GLOBAL BURDEN VIOLENCE and girls are violently killed around the world each year. 2 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 This volume also assesses the linkages between violent death rates and socio-economic development, demonstrating that homicide rates are higher wherever income disparity, extreme poverty, and hunger are high. It challenges the use of simple analytical classifications and policy responses, and offers researchers and policy-makers new tools for studying and tackling different forms of violence. of ARMED VIOLENCE o f ARMED BURDEN Photos Top left: Rescuers evacuate a wounded person from Utoeya, Norway, July 2011. © Morten Edvarsen/AFP Photo Lethal Centre left: Morgue workers transport a coffin to be buried along with other unidentified bodies found in mass graves, Durango, Mexico, June 2011. © Jorge Valenzuela/Reuters Encounters Bottom right: An armed fighter walks past a burnt-out armed vehicle in the Abobo 2011 district of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, March 2010. © Issouf Sanogo/AFP Photo Centre right: A protester runs from a burning police booth in front of the Interior Ministry in Cairo, Egypt, June 2011. © Mohamed Abd El-Ghany/Reuters www.genevadeclaration.org ISBN 978-1-107-60679-1 GENEVA DECLARATION www.genevadeclaration.org GENEVA DECLARATION GLOBAL of ARMED BURDEN VIOLENCE Lethal Encounters 20111111 www.genevadeclaration.org ii Copyright 2011 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS First published 2011 Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Press, Cambridge ARMED VIOLENCE VIOLENCE ARMED of Mexico City A catalogue record for this publication is available Cambridge University Press from the British Library The Edinburgh Building Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK ISBN 978-1-107-02307-9 Hardback Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York ISBN 978-1-107-60679-1 Paperback GLOBAL BURDEN BURDEN GLOBAL www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external Information on this title: or third-party internet websites referred to in this www.cambridge.org/9781107606791 publication, and does not guarantee that any con- © Geneva Declaration Secretariat, Geneva 2011 tent on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. This publication is in copyright. Subject to statu- tory exception and to the provisions of relevant Suggested citation: collective licensing agreements, no reproduction Geneva Declaration Secretariat. 2011. Global of any part may take place without the written Burden of Armed Violence 2011: Lethal Encounters. permission of Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. iii Foreword FOREWORD he Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 slower development. Armed violence undermines introduces a unified framework for under- governmental institutions, destroys human T standing patterns and characteristics of and physical capital, reduces productivity, and lethal violence across all settings, from armed redirects resources away from social and eco- conflicts to economically motivated crime and nomic investment in fighting crime and violence. interpersonal violence. Countries that exhibit high levels of income The report flies in the face of conventional wisdom inequality and unemployment as well as poor and mainstream media coverage by highlighting rule of law are more likely to experience high that conflict deaths account for a relatively small levels of armed violence. part of the global burden of lethal violence, and The picture may be bleak, but a great deal can that most places featuring high death rates are be done to fight the scourge of armed violence. not to be found in conflict zones. Only about 10 Together with more than 100 other signatories of 1 per cent of all violent deaths occur as a result of the Geneva Declaration, the Swiss Confederation 2 armed conflicts or terrorism. Roughly 90 per cent recognizes that effective prevention and reduc- 3 of victims die as a result of homicides, or from tion of armed violence is a key to sustainable deaths occurring during legal interventions in development. Around the globe, in the North as 4 non-conflict countries. in the South, states are stepping up their efforts 5 The human toll is staggering. Between 2004 and to tackle armed violence in urban contexts, along 2009, more than half a million people (526,000) borders, and among high-risk groups. National died annually as a direct result of violence. In and local governments successfully join forces addition, hundreds of thousands of fatalities with civil society to help reduce violent death probably occur without being recorded, or as an rates. A number of good practices derive from indirect result of armed conflict. Further, for every these experiences. person killed, many more are injured, or suffer The international community—including agencies permanent disability and long-lasting pain. such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation The Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 also and Development, the United Nations, and the examines the negative links between armed vio- World Bank—is increasingly supporting such lence and development. It shows how freedom programming efforts and providing guidelines from violence is a fundamental prerequisite of for good practices in preventing and reducing economic progress and human well-being and armed violence. In this context, the Global Burden how armed violence is strongly associated with of Armed Violence 2011 provides policy-makers iv and other stakeholders with a timely tool for responding to evidence in designing policies and programmes at the local, national, and regional levels. We urge the international community, 2011 governments, local authorities, and civil society partners to continue to work together to reduce the global burden of armed violence. ARMED VIOLENCE VIOLENCE ARMED Peter Maurer of State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs GLOBAL BURDEN BURDEN GLOBAL v Contents CONTENTS List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................................................................................ vii About the Geneva Declaration .................................................................................................................................................... xii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................................................... xiii Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Disaggregating lethal violence ............................................................................................................................................