The Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development was a diplomatic initiative aimed at addressing the interrelations between armed violence and development. Launched in 2006 by UNDP and Switzerland, the Geneva Declaration strived to achieve measurable reductions in the global burden of armed violence and improvements in human security by 2015. With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under Agenda 2030, a key goal of the Geneva Declaration was fulfilled and it ceased to be an active political process.

Check out this infographic for a snapshot of our 2020 update on global violent deaths (GVD)—on 2018 figures.

More on our GVD database here.

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The year 2018 was characterized by a decrease in lethal violence in several of the world’s hotspots, primarily due to a significant de-escalation of the armed conflicts in Iraq, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Syria. The homicide rate also decreased marginally due to population growth outpacing the nominal increase in killings between 2017 and 2018.

The year 2017 saw the second highest annual rate of global violent deaths in the period 2004–17, according to this Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey.

Although Libya's estimated rate of violent deaths is still far below those of Syria and several Central American nations, it remains significant, ranking eighth globally for 2016. This unenviable situation is symptomatic of the ongoing turmoil and instability facing the country since 2011.

Lethal violence claimed 560,000 lives in 2016—more than one person every minute of every day of the year.

Beyond the Battlefield: Towards a Better Assessment of the Human Cost of Armed Conflict, makes a case for stepping up efforts to measure and understand the entire range of conflict-related deaths, particularly among forcibly displaced populations.

Tracking Conflict-Related Deaths – A Preliminary Overview of Monitoring Systems aims to contribute to the development of a standardized methodology for tracking the number of people who are killed in armed conflict. This, in the context of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of which Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 16.1 specifies to ‘[s]ignificantly reduce all forms of violence and related deaths everywhere’.

In the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Small Arms Survey presents a study of available information on violent deaths, disaggregated by sex. A Gendered Analysis of Violent Deaths assesses variations in the risk of violent death for men and women in conflict and non-conflict settings. It finds that in some high-income countries, more women than men die violently every year, and that intimate partner violence remains a problem even when overall homicide rates decrease.

In the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Small Arms Survey has launched Firearms and Violent Deaths, the second in a series of three reports designed to support global efforts to reach targets under Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG16).