A/HRC/35/8 degrading treatment or punishment.12 The use or threat of use of arms may also undermine the realization of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. 13 10. Not only is there the issue of “opportunity cost”: economic, social and cultural rights can also be significantly undermined by the use of arms. 14 Particularly in contexts of armed conflict, such use can lead to the damage, destruction and/or closure of civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, places of work, markets, residential areas, buildings and areas of religious and cultural significance, as well as to a breakdown in basic services. 15 In turn, civilians, including internally displaced persons and refugees, can be deprived of the minimum essential levels of food, health, education, shelter and sanitation. Furthermore, armed conflict and violence disproportionately affect the poorest countries and exacerbate existing poverty, in many instances creating humanitarian emergencies with serious repercussions for the enjoyment of basic economic and social rights. Arms transfers may also heighten and/or prolong existing violence or conflict, with a corresponding impact on human rights.16 11. Survivors of arms-related violence with impairments face higher barriers to “effective employment, well-being, and reintegration into community and family life”. 17 Survivors may also experience long-term psychological effects that include psychosocial impairments, flashbacks, depression, anxiety and fear, suicidal or other forms of selfdestructive behaviour, and substance abuse. 18 12. As highlighted in Human Rights Council resolution 32/12, specific groups of individuals may be particularly vulnerable to violations of their rights as a result of arms transfers. 19 Arms may be used in the commission of, or may facilitate, gender-based violence,20 including sexual violence.21 Although men and boys are targets of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, the victims of such violence continue to be predominantly women and girls. As the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has noted, the proliferation of conventional arms, especially small arms, including diverted arms from the legal trade, can have a direct or indirect effect on women as victims of conflict-related gender-based violence, as victims of domestic violence and also as protesters or actors in resistance movements. 22 Moreover, the proliferation of arms tends to have a negative impact on women’s equality and bargaining power within the household, their mobility and their political participation. 23 It can also detrimentally affect women’s access to, and use of, resources and business and employment opportunities. 24 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4 See the contributions of Albania, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mauritius and Sweden. See the contribution of Amnesty International. See the contributions of Argentina and Amnesty International. See the contributions of Amnesty International and Control Arms. See the contributions of Switzerland and WILPF. Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and Inter-Parliamentary Union, Missing Pieces: A Guide for Reducing Gun Violence through Parliamentary Action (2007), p. 63. Ibid. See also the contribution of Argentina. See also the contributions of Albania, El Salvador and Switzerland. Gender-based violence is understood as any harmful act directed against individuals or groups of individuals on the basis of their gender and includes sexual violence, domestic violence and trafficking. See also the contribution of Switzerland. Sexual violence encompasses any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, acts to traffic or other acts directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. Sexual violence takes multiple forms and includes rape, sexual abuse, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced prostitution, trafficking, sexual enslavement, forced circumcision, castration and forced nudity. See, for example, the analytical and conceptual framing of conflict-related sexual violence prepared in 2011 by United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. General recommendation No. 30 (2013) on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, para. 32. See contribution of WILPF. Ibid. See also South-Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Gender and SALW in South East Europe: Main Concerns and Policy Response