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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
Experts
from the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United
Nations Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC) today weighed the
significance for the Americas of the Global Study on Homicide which
was recently released by UNODC. The Study emphasizes that the
situation in the Western Hemisphere is critical, as in some regions
citizen security continues to be threatened by increasing rates of
violent crime. If the same level of crime persists in countries with
high murder rates in the Americas –especially involving firearms
such as in Central America– 1 in 50 males aged 20 will be killed
before reaching the age of 31. This risk is roughly 400 times higher
than that of a man in some parts of Asia, where homicide rates are
among the lowest in the world.
The two organizations used
the Study’s data as a springboard for action to support countries
and to increase citizen security in the region. The Secretary
General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, opened the meeting by
asserting that “there can be neither public policies or strategies
without adequate evidence of the realities that must be changed,” a
principle “especially necessary within the scope of citizen
security, since the goal is to define actions that can affect
directly and daily the lives and wellbeing of thousands of persons.”
He added that “on matters of security we must be very careful and
always rely on clear and trustworthy information.”
The head
of the hemispheric Organization recalled that, in search of this
objective, the OAS in 2007 created the Hemispheric Observatory on
Security, which since 2009 publishes on the Web site www.alertamerica.org
Following Secretary
General Insulza’s presentation, the following experts participated
in the debate: Adam Blackwell, OAS Secretary of Multidimensional
Security; Antonio Mazzitelli, UNODC Regional Representative for
Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; and Enrico Bisogno, one
of the leading authors of the study from UNODC.
“Based on the
existing evidence, the OAS has developed important instruments
destined to support its Member States in registering and destroying
firearms,” Adam Blackwell said. “The Inter-American Convention
against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms,
Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials” is the regional
framework in which we develop our efforts, Blackwell
added.
Antonio Mazzitelli noted that knowledge of the
patterns and causes of violent crime are crucial to forming
preventive strategies. “The Study shows that organized crime is
affecting an increasing number of countries in the Americas which in
turn leads to a spill over of violence onto the streets. The
evidence in front of us gives us an opportunity to better understand
the magnitude of the problem including who is most at risk and where
so that we might improve our responses to crime in general and
violence in particular,” he said. On behalf of UNODC Executive
Director Yury Fedotov, Mr. Mazzitelli also spoke on the unnecessary
fatalities caused by gun crime: “The proliferation of weapons is a
big problem in many regions of the world. There are, however,
international legal instruments available to countries which can
help halt these deaths. The Firearms Protocol for instance can help
avoid the diversion of guns which ultimately lead to intensified
violence and increased homicides.”
Enrico Bisogno of UNODC
highlighted how the statistics and the analysis presented in the
Study can support the formulation of prevention policies. ”We now
have evidence of what causes violent crime in the Americas:
homicides by firearm and organized crime but also human development,
income inequality, economic performance, and gender disparities have
strongly affect homicide rates among both men and women. These are
the elements that we need to address if we want to reduce violent
crime in the region”.
According to the Global Report on
Homicide 2011 (available here),
31 percent of the 468,000 homicides registered globally happened in
the Americas. The study also shows that young men, particularly in
Central America, South America and the Caribbean, suffer a greater
risk of dying by intentional homicide, but that women are more at
risk of being murdered in episodes of domestic violence. Regarding
the growing number of homicides in Central America and the
Caribbean, the report shows that nearly three of every four murders
are committed with a firearm, the highest rate of any region in the
planet.
For more information, please visit the OAS
all the
official information of the region collected and systematized for
its use by the continent’s authorities in charge of these matters.
“For a year we have joined our efforts to systematize and diffuse
this information with the efforts of UNODC in this endeavor and with
a global perspective. Today we can show an expression of this effort
of cooperation between our two organizations, contained in the
information on the Americas in the Global Report on Homicides 2011
of the United Nations,” he concluded.
Website at
www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2011 by thebahamasweekly.com
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