Global Burden of Armed Violence
The first Global Burden of Armed Violence (GBAV) report, released in 2008, provides comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date data on international trends and patterns of armed violence.
Building on previous research conducted by criminologists, public health specialists, statisticians, economists and analysts in conflict studies, the Geneva Declaration Secretariat worked closely with a wide range of partners such as the WHO, UNDP, UNODC, CRED, CERAC, and others to develop a set of preliminary indicators that allowed for some tentative estimates of the scope, scale, intensity, and cost of armed violence worldwide.
The Global Burden of Armed Violence report brings into sharp focus the wide-ranging costs of conflict and crime on development. The report states that although the incidence of armed conflict has declined in recent years, the number of people killed by armed violence has not.
More than 740,000 men, women, and children die around the world each year as a result of armed violence. The majority of these deaths—490,000—occur in countries that are ostensibly not affected by armed conflict. They are the result of homicides and associated interpersonal violence. For every death, non-fatal injuries due to violence lead to dozens of people hospitalized, hundreds of emergency department visist and thousands of doctor's appointment.
Lost product due to homicides alone is conservatively estimated at between USD 95 billion and 163 billion per year. Violence due to armed conflict can decrease the annual growth of a typical economy by approximately two per cent. The report also highlights some of the less visible forms of armed violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, and forced disappearances.