A/HRC/42/21 living with a gun in their home were between nearly three and five times more likely to be murdered than women with no gun in their home. 67 37. Firearm violence committed by civilians can also impact the economic, social and cultural rights of women and girls. In many countries, women frequently lose their access to farmlands and the right to live in their marital homes when their spouses or partners are killed. The resulting survival choices for many women and girls affected are prostitution, commercial labour or domestic servitude, which risk exposing them to continued violence and to ill-health from communicable diseases and poor working conditions, as well as to future community exclusion.68 38. Women living in areas prone to civilian firearm violence also face difficulties in accessing health services that are specific to their needs. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, women with obstetric complications struggle to access medical treatment because dangerous conditions such as armed banditry impede their travel to health centres.69 Moreover, in the North Rift region of Kenya, women are unable to access sexual and reproductive health services due to insecurity arising from armed cattle-raiding, which has led to the lowest levels of antenatal and prenatal care in the country. 70 39. Firearm violence also has a disproportionately negative impact on the rights to life and to security of person of children and adolescents, especially outside of conflict settings. Statistics indicate, for example, that 60 per cent of the adolescents who died in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2015 (numbering 26,000) were killed by firearms. 71 Most often, young male perpetrators and victims of firearm violence in the region are lured into a life of gang violence and crime, influenced by the desire to attain a lifestyle that features firearms, cars, alcohol, drugs, a sense of power and other luxuries and excesses that they believe they can only achieve by joining these groups. 72 In addition, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated that the availability and accessibility of small arms is a major cause of child disability.73 40. Civilian access to firearms can also have a disproportionate and discriminatory impact on the rights to life and to security of person of individuals belonging to ethnic minority communities. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for example, the Office for National Statistics recently indicated that a disproportionately high number of persons of African and Asian descent were victims of firearm offences. 74 The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed concern regarding civilian firearm violence and its disparate impact on minorities.75 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Ibid. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Armed Violence Reduction: Enabling Development (Paris, 2009), footnote 7. Ley Uwera (Global Press Journal), “For women in DRC, conflict means greater chance of rape, health problems and scarce access to health care”, 9 May 2016. See the contribution of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. See the contribution of UNICEF. See the contribution of the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico. See the Committee’s general comment No. 9 (2006) on the rights of children with disabilities. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has also noted with concern that firearm legislation in some States does not expressly prohibit the acquisition or use of firearms by children. See CRC/C/OPAC/GIN/CO/1 and CRC/C/OPAC/MWI/CO/1. In addition, it has expressed concern at the fact that some States provide and organize military training for children and adolescents that includes, or may include, the participation of children in handling firearms. The Committee has urged States to ban such training. See CRC/C/OPAC/EST/CO/1, CRC/C/OPAC/LVA/CO/1 and CRC/C/OPAC/PER/CO/1. For a discussion of comments made by treaty-based human rights bodies regarding the impact of civilian access to firearms on the human rights of children prior to 2016, see A/HRC/32/21, paras. 26, 30 and 33. “Offences involving the use of weapons”, Office for National Statistics compendium, 11 February 2016, p. 20. CERD/C/USA/CO/7-9, para. 16. 9