A/HRC/42/21 well as programmes that support families and parents through safety nets and parenting skills, can yield positive results.92 51. When tackling gang violence, however, individual interventions on their own are not enough to deal with the multi-pronged community risks and problems associated with acquiring, possessing and using firearms. Even if individual interventions manage to prevent a youth from seeking, carrying and using a weapon at a particular point in time, they do not fully address the systemic, root causes that may lead him or her to access a firearm again in the future.93 52. Therefore, contributions indicated that in order for youth programmes aimed at preventing gang violence to be as effective as possible, they should combine a holistic package of socioeconomic interventions and services tailored to children and adolescents, with individual case management. Under this systems approach, coordination and planning by a team of professionals from social services, health care, law enforcement and the community is best suited to support children who access firearms, or have access to a civilian adult who has acquired or possessed firearms or is using them. 94 UNICEF has cautioned, however, that these programmes should not take place exclusively in schools, or focus exclusively on children in schools, as most of the at-risk youth are not enrolled.95 53. In Oakland, United States, for example, an ongoing partnership between community members, social service providers and law enforcement officials known as Oakland Ceasefire has cut annual shootings and homicides nearly in half since 2012.96 Other cities near Oakland have implemented similar programmes, leading to a sustained overall drop in firearm homicides of 30 per cent for the San Francisco Bay Area and of 40 per cent for residents of African descent. The common context among each of these cities is that they have adopted community-driven, robustly funded approaches that include leadership from formerly incarcerated residents.97 54. The Oakland Ceasefire programme also highlights the importance of commissioning public studies on the human rights impact of civilian access to firearms. Through extensive research, the programme was able to determine that only 400 individuals – just 0.1 per cent of Oakland’s total population – were at the highest risk for engaging in serious violence at any given time. Oakland Ceasefire partners intervene with this population, which has contributed in great part to the dramatic decrease in firearm homicides.98 55. Evidence also demonstrates a strong link between poverty and firearm violence, which underscores the need to implement poverty reduction programming to decrease the impact of firearm violence on human rights. 99 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has established a clear link between lethal violence and poverty. 100 Additional research indicates that urban armed violence is related to poverty, inequality, unemployment, youth maladjustment, and the prevalence of firearms.101 States with high levels of firearm violence should therefore consider investing in areas of economic deprivation by creating job programmes, attracting and incentivizing businesses to the area, and offering educational, mentorship and vocational training programmes to counter the 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 12 Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Mike McLively and Brittany Nieto, “A case study in hope: lessons from Oakland’s remarkable reduction in gun violence” (Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Faith in Action, and Black and Brown Gun Violence Prevention Consortium, April 2019), pp. 5–6. Lois Beckett et al., “Gun violence has sharply declined in California’s Bay Area. What happened?”, The Guardian, 4 June 2019, available at www.theguardian.com/us-news/nginteractive/2019/jun/03/gun-violence-bay-area-drop-30-percent-why-investigation. Mike McLively and Brittany Nieto, “A case study in hope: lessons from Oakland’s remarkable reduction in gun violence”, p. 6. See the contributions of Côte d’Ivoire, the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, Amnesty International and UNICEF. Global Study on Homicide 2013 (United Nations publication, Sales No. 14.IV.1), p. 25. Small Arms Survey research notes, No. 23 (November 2012), p. 3.