'The globalization and expansion of the private security industry has led to concerns about whether the industry has adequate safeguards to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and other human rights abuses, by its personnel.'
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'As it enters its tenth year, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) stands as one of the newest multilateral initiatives seeking to address the impact of the global arms trade.
'During the pandemic-imposed restrictions of 2021, Argentinian society faced an unrelated outbreak of femicides committed by members of the country’s security forces.
'In 2013, the United Nations Security Council pledged to ‘increase its attention to women, peace and security issues in all relevant thematic areas of work on its agenda, including … threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’.
'The Russian Federation's war of aggression against Ukraine has exacted a devastating toll on the Ukrainian civilian population. Mounting an adequate humanitarian response will hinge on properly quantifying its scale and nature—never an easy task in a conflict zone, and immeasurably harder amid the fog of disinformation.
Almost one in three women across the globe — some 736 million women in total — have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime, according to a landmark meta-analysis published by the World Health Organization in 2021. The presence of a firearm in the family home increases the risk not only that such acts will be committed but also that they will result in the death of the victim...
Every 35 hours, a woman is assassinated in Argentina just for being a woman. This dire situation unleashed a wave of protests, beginning on 3 June 2015 with a march under the slogan 'Ni una menos' ('Not one [woman] less'). National authorities reacted by putting the issue at the top of the public agenda and adopting a range of actions to prevent and eradicate gender-based violence...
The roles of women in arms offences have been looked at from many perspectives, including violent extremism prevention, women offenders, political activism, or transnational crime in relation to drug trafficking and human trafficking. However, the roles of women in arms trafficking have rarely been considered through a small arms lens.
The Security Council has stated that: 'the illicit transfer, destabilizing accumulation, and misuse of small arms and light weapons fuel armed conflicts and have a wide range of […] consequences […], including the disproportionate impact on violence against women and girls and exacerbating sexual and gender-based violence in conflict.'
Ammunition diverted from legal to illicit markets is a central concern in small arms control, but its impact is understudied. A new Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey and the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs explores how authorities can go about better monitoring the role it plays in violent crime.