Review Summit on the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development
Hosted by the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations Development Programme
Date:
12 September 2008
12 September 2008
Venue:
World Meteorological Organization
Avenue de la Paix 7bis
1211 Geneva
World Meteorological Organization
Avenue de la Paix 7bis
1211 Geneva
Two years after the launching of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, a Ministerial Review Summit is being organized by Switzerland and the United Nations Development Programme. The Summit aims to examine the progress of implementation of the Geneva Declaration. It will also provide guidance for the future implementation and the strengthening of the relations between security and development through practical measures. In addition the first report on the Global Burden of Armed Violence will be presented.
The Geneva Declaration advocates for an integrated approach to issues of armed violence and development and calls upon states to 'achieve demonstrable reductions in the global burden of armed violence and improvements in human security by 2015'.
Report on the Global Burden of Armed Violence
The evidence assembled in the report on the Global Burden of Armed Violence provides an overview of the incidence, severity, and distribution of different types of armed violence in both conflict and non-conflict situations, from both large and small-scale violence, in criminally motivated and politically motivated contexts. In the recent past, at least 700,000 people have died directly or indirectly each year from armed violence and the report documents the tremendous economic costs of lives lost.
The evidence assembled in the report on the Global Burden of Armed Violence provides an overview of the incidence, severity, and distribution of different types of armed violence in both conflict and non-conflict situations, from both large and small-scale violence, in criminally motivated and politically motivated contexts. In the recent past, at least 700,000 people have died directly or indirectly each year from armed violence and the report documents the tremendous economic costs of lives lost.
The Summit
The Summit will be attended by representatives of the current signatory countries of the Geneva Declaration-more than 90 to date-as well as by international organizations and civil society.
The Summit will be attended by representatives of the current signatory countries of the Geneva Declaration-more than 90 to date-as well as by international organizations and civil society.
The intended outcome of the Summit will be a Summit Statement, which will
- reaffirm that armed violence can undermine a country's development prospects and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals;
- reaffirm that underdevelopment and inequality can fuel the incidence of armed violence; and
- call for further steps to address this challenge at the international, regional, and national levels.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations acknowledged the potential of the Geneva Declaration in his report to the Security Council on small arms, which was published in April 2008. The UN, the leading standard-setter at the global level on the fight against armed violence, considers the Geneva Declaration to be a dynamic and useful element in our collective efforts to tackle the problem of the illicit trafficking and misuse of small arms.
In an effort to broaden the global legitimacy of the Geneva Declaration, the Core Group of 13 states (Switzerland, Brazil, Guatemala, Finland, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand, and United Kingdom) that are leading the implementation of the Geneva Declaration prepared a draft UNGA Resolution on 'Promoting development through armed violence prevention and reduction'. The Summit aims at building support for this Resolution, which requests the UN Secretary-General to submit to the UN General Assembly a report on the relationship between armed violence and development.
