A/HRC/32/21 II. Impact of the misuse of firearms on the enjoyment of human rights 5. It has been widely recognized that firearms are the main tool used to commit acts of violence and crime (A/HRC/14/24/Add.7). The Secretary-General has described them as “weapons of mass destruction” (see A/54/2000, para. 238). Firearms are more widely used than any other weapon.3 While the rate varies from region to region, recent estimates suggest that approximately 41-46 per cent of all homicides involve firearms.4 About 86 per cent of homicides using firearms are deaths in non-conflict settings.5 These estimates do not factor in suicides committed with firearms or deaths by firearms in conflict settings.6 6. Assessments of violence committed with the use of firearms are often based on rates of homicide and recorded conflict deaths and do not typically include the non-fatal consequences of firearm use. To fill this gap, the Secretariat of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development has undertaken research and found that at least 754,000 individuals are victims of non-fatal firearms injuries every year.7 Other negative and longterm consequences of firearms that are less documented include non-physical harm such as psychological trauma and stress, the effects of which can be felt even when a firearm is only used to threaten.8 In addition, there is a growing awareness of the economic costs of armed violence.9 One study assessed the economic impact of violence containment on the world economy at $9.46 trillion or 11 per cent of gross world product.10 These figures show that access to firearms and their unlawful use pose a risk of significant harm to human life in various ways. 7. The submissions received from States and other stakeholders following calls for contributions to the present report helped build a better understanding of the direct and indirect impact of firearms on human rights. The submissions confirm that firearms lead to a broad range of acts which can affect a wide variety of human rights. They highlight the types of crime and violence in which firearms have been used, including homicides,11 serious injuries, including those causing disability,12 rape and other sexual violence, robbery, theft, assault, abduction, torture, forced displacement and domestic violence. 13 Some States reported that the majority of criminal violence on their territory was committed 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Global Study on Homicide (Vienna, 2013), pp. 15-16. Ibid., pp. 15-16. UNODC estimates 177,000 deaths in 2012, while the secretariat of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, in Global Burden of Armed Violence 2015: Every Body Counts, estimated an annual average of nearly 197,000 deaths for the period 2007-2012. Geneva Declaration, Global Burden, chap. 2. Neither the UNODC nor the Geneva Declaration study includes “self-inflicted death” committed with a firearm in their calculations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2012 alone there were some 800,000 suicides, with firearms accounting for up to 46 per cent of them in some parts of the world. See www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/highlights-2014/rn44-firearmsuicides.html and WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Global Imperative (Geneva, 2014), p. 24. Geneva Declaration, Global Burden, p. 73. See also www.globalburdenofinjuries.org and A. Alvazzi del Frate, “a matter of survival: non-lethal firearm violence”, in Small Arms Survey 2012: Moving Targets (Geneva, 2012), pp. 78-105. Geneva Declaration, Global Burden, p. 91. Ibid., chap. 5. Institute for Economics and Peace, The Economic Cost of Violence Containment (2014). France. Peru and Estonia. Ecuador and Burkina Faso. 3