Reaching Gender Equality, Peace and Security Through Small Arms Control - Small Arms Survey
During and following conflict, men, women, boys, girls and gender minorities are often direct victims of small arms violence including domestic violence, sexual violence, forced recruitment into armed groups, injury, and death. Indirect consequences of armed violence include taking care of injured family members and an inability to access work, education, and health care. Yet armed conflict can also create spaces to transcend traditional gender roles. While some women and girls willingly smuggle weapons or take up arms as combatants, others become community leaders at the forefront of local, national, and international initiatives to control arms. Regional and national action plans on UNSCR 1325 and on small arms have the potential to be stronger and more effective by focusing on preventing armed violence, including domestic violence; removing arms from communities; and consulting with women’s civil society organizations on laws, policies, education processes and monitoring progress.
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- Enhance national capacities to develop, implement and measure progress through NAPs on 1325 and small arms: Support concrete action on gender equality and small arms control through NAPs on 1325 and small arms. Measure progress through indicators such as the sex, age and ethnicity-disaggregated percentage of domestic homicides and injuries involving arms. As is mandated by UNSCR 1889 (2009), ensure that data is collected and monitored on indicator 14 (on armed violence against women and girls) and indicator 17 (on national mechanisms for the control of illicit SALWs).
- Assess risks for gender-based violence before arms export: State parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) should develop robust risk assessment tools in line with Article 7(4), with arms export authorization withheld should such risks be identified.
- Address the gendered root causes of armed violence: Prevention of armed violence requires altering social norms that influence men and women’s attitudes toward physical, psychological and financial violence, as well as socially constructed notions of masculinities and femininities. Involving men in violence-prevention activities is particularly important.
Recommendations drawn from:
Philippine UNSCR 1325 NAP: In order to address the high rate of gun violence in the Philippines, women’s CSOs lobbied their government vigorously for the ATT and the inclusion of small arms control in the UNSCR 1325 NAP. On the basis of community-level consultations, the CSOs proposed a separate action point in the UNSCR 1325 NAP for the creation and enforcement of laws regulating possession of small arms. The government argued against this point but a compromise was reached to include an indicator on the adoption of regulations on SALW transfer and usage. Regrettably, CSOs were not consulted in the development of the following Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act nor did the Act reflect the provisions in the UNSCR 1325 NAP. However, in 2013 the police service began consultation with CSOs on the implementation of the Act.
Example drawn from: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2014/en/Small-A...
Guns, social norms and VAWG in Nepal: Although most armed violence in Nepal tends to involve unsophisticated instruments, gun violence targeting women and girls is also present. Social norms seem to play a particular role in the presence of firearms in Nepali society as well as their use in violence against women and girls (VAWG). Gun ownership is closely tied to power and social status, as it is often seen to be the prerogative of powerful Nepali men, rather than of then women or ‘common people’. Although public authorities and NGOs alike have campaigned for an end to VAWG in the country, there have been few initiatives that have taken a targeted approach by focusing on particular risk or aggravating factors, such as gun ownership or social norms that condone VAWG. Despite these challenges, the year 2010 was declared as the ‘Year to End Gender-Based Violence’ by the Government of Nepal with an emphasis on changing social norms, including the use of guns in VAWG. The campaign resulted in the formulation of a national strategy for the prevention of gender-based violence and paved the way in 2011 for the development of a five-year national action plan on the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820. Regrettably, the NAP does not include any reference to gun violence or small arms or control of illicit arms, highlighting a clear area for continuing efforts to prevent VAWG.
Example drawn from: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2014/en/Small-A...
