{"id":1380347,"date":"2023-12-08T18:59:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T18:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanrightsdefenders.blog\/?p=25613"},"modified":"2023-12-08T18:59:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T18:59:33","slug":"a-sombre-reminder-homicide-a-bigger-killer-than-armed-conflict-and-terrorism-combined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/12\/08\/a-sombre-reminder-homicide-a-bigger-killer-than-armed-conflict-and-terrorism-combined\/","title":{"rendered":"A sombre reminder: homicide a bigger killer than armed conflict and terrorism combined"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Globally,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Unsplash\/David von Diemar<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday 8 December 2023 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that more people were killed due to homicide than armed conflict and terrorism combined in 2021, with an average of 52 lives lost per hour worldwide. The Global Study on Homicide<\/em> analyzes the complex dynamics behind these violent deaths and includes a special section on how organized crime is driving death rates up in Latin America and the Caribbean.\u202f<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report examines homicides related to criminal activities and interpersonal conflict, as well as \u201csocio-politically motivated homicides\u201d such as the deliberate killing of human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNODC<\/a> chief Ghada Waly said the loss of thousands of lives each year to homicide is \u201ca sombre reminder\u201d of the collective failure of the international community to reduce all forms of violence by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report revealed that during the period from 2019 to 2021, an average of roughly 440,000 deaths worldwide were due to homicide – more than conflict-related or terrorist killings combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNODC said 2021 \u201cwas an exceptionally lethal year\u201d, marked by 458,000 homicides.  The spike was in part linked to economic repercussions from the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic and to a rise in organized crime and gang-related and socio-political violence in several countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organized crime accounted for 22 per cent of homicides globally, and 50 per cent in the Americas, where competition among organized crime groups and gangs can spark a sudden and sharp rise in \u201cintentional homicides\u201d, as has happened in Ecuador and Haiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Americas also lead the world in highest regional homicide rate per capita, with 15 per 100,000 population in 2021, or 154,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa had the highest absolute number of homicides at 176,000, or 12.7 per 100,000 population, \u201cand available data suggests that the homicide rate is not falling, even as decreases have been registered in other regions,\u201d the report said.\u00a0 Meanwhile rates in Asia, Europe and Oceania were far below the global per capita average of 5.8 per 100,000 population in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firearms were used in most killings in the Americas in 2021, or roughly 75 per cent, whereas in Europe and Asia they were involved in 17 and 18 per cent of homicides, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men accounted for 81 per cent of homicide victims and 90 per cent of suspects, but women are more likely to be killed by family members or intimate partners. \u201cAlthough they represent 19 per cent of homicide victims in total, they account for 54 per cent of all killings in the home and 66 per cent of all victims of intimate partner killings,\u201d UNODC said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aid workers under attack <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The data also showed that the deliberate killings of human rights defenders, environmental defenders, community leaders, journalists, and aid workers represented nine per cent of global homicides. \u201cThe threat has increased for humanitarian aid workers, who witnessed a higher average number of fatalities over the period 2017-2022 than 2010-2016,<\/em>\u201d the authors said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2023\/12\/1144392<\/a><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 Unsplash\/David von Diemar On Friday 8 December 2023 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that more people were killed due to homicide than armed conflict and terrorism combined in 2021, with an average of 52 lives lost per hour worldwide. The Global Study on Homicide analyzes the complex dynamics behind these [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2096,857,362,4964,1424,37814,523,1080,4772,527,1680,71948],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380348,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380347\/revisions\/1380348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}