A/HRC/35/8 13. There is a long-standing awareness of the link between the global trade in conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons, and grave violations committed against children in conflict situations.25 The relationship between the widespread availability of small arms and light weapons and the recruitment and use of children in conflict is also well known. 26 In his latest report on children and armed conflict, the Secretary-General noted the substantial impact of current conflicts on children, including in relation to their recruitment and use, sexual abuse and exploitation, killing and/or maiming and displacement, as well as the destruction of their schools and homes. 27 The Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict recently drew attention to the fact that girls continue to be disproportionately affected by conflict, including as targets of rape and other forms of sexual violence, in the recruitment and use by armed forces, in situations of displacement and as a consequence of being disproportionately exposed to trafficking. Girls also face additional impediments to their right to education as their schools may be specifically targeted for attack, and as a result of being confined to the home owing to the security situation and/or being given additional household responsibilities.28 III. Measuring the impact of arms transfers on the enjoyment of human rights 14. The collection of data has enabled the measurement of some of the consequences of the use of certain types of arms and, over time, the identification of patterns and trends. For example, according to the Small Arms Survey, 75 per cent of deaths caused by armed violence occur in non-conflict settings, while an estimated 2 million people in non-conflict settings live with firearm-related injuries.29 Between 2010 and 2015, the average number of violent deaths worldwide was estimated to be at 535,000 annually. 30 Conflict-related deaths accounted for 17 per cent of that number. 31 Firearms were used in 50 per cent of homicides and 32 per cent of conflict-related deaths.32 In Global Burden of Armed Violence 2015: Every Body Counts, it was estimated that firearms were used in 44.1 per cent of all violent deaths during the period 2007-2012, which translates to an annual global average of nearly 197,000 deaths. 15. Moreover, according to research carried out by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) there was a 45 per cent increase in deaths and injuries from explosive weapons between 2011 and 2015. 33 Improvised explosive devices caused the most harm, followed by airlaunched weaponry and ground-launched weaponry. Explosive weapons were used in 566 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 (2016) and the progress report of the Special Rapporteur on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and light weapons (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/37), paras. 46-52. Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (A/68/267), para. 92. Ibid. See also Child Soldiers International, Louder than Words: an Agenda for Action to End State Use of Child Soldiers (2012) and Christoph Steinmetz, Small Arms in the Hands of Children: German Arms Exports and Child Soldiers (Terre des Hommes, Kindernothilfe, Brot für die Welt and WorldVision Deutschland, 2017). Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (A/70/836-S/2016/360). See also, for example, UNICEF, Hitting Rock Bottom: How 2016 Became the Worst Year for Syria’s Children (March 2017). See the annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (A/HRC/34/44), paras. 9-14. Anna Alvazzi del Frate, “A matter of survival: non-lethal firearm violence”, in Small Arms Survey 2012: Moving Targets (Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 79-105. Small Arms Survey, “Monitoring trends in violent deaths”, Research Note No. 59 (September 2016), p. 2. Ibid. Small Arms Survey, “Firearms and violent deaths”, Research Note No. 60 (October 2016) p. 1. See the contribution of AOAV. 5