View previous stories
	Lethal violence and its associated fear continues to escalate in cities across the world by IIED, Environment and Urbanization   May 2015   Brazil gun killings rise to highest level in 35 years. (BBC News)   A report on violence in Brazil says around 42,000 people were shot dead in 2012 - the highest figures for gun crime in 35 years. The study, by the UN and the government on the most recent available data, said almost all the deaths were murders.   More than half of those killed were young men under the age of 30 - two-thirds were described as black. The Brazilian Congress is currently debating a bill that would limit access to firearms.   Gun crime murders have been dropping in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo but rising in the north and northeast of the country. The northern state of Alagoas is the most violent, with fifty-five gun deaths per hundred thousand inhabitants.   The report says a slow justice system and flawed police investigations as well as the widespread availability of firearms are to blame.   It says Brazil has become a society which tolerates guns to resolve "all sorts of disputes, in most cases for very banal and circumstantial reasons."   A law to ban the carrying of guns in public and control illegal ownership came into effect in 2004. It tightened rules on gun permits and create a national firearms register, with strict penalties for owning an unregistered gun.   http://www.frontlineclub.com/gun-baby-gun-a-bloody-journey-into-the-world-of-the-gun-2/   October 2014   Violence in cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America is here to stay and can no longer just be seen as a problem that can be challenged and overcome through development programmes, says new research in the October issue of Environment and Urbanization published today.   Drawing on papers from countries including Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Haiti, South Africa and South Sudan, this more realistic approach could be a crucial step to enable those affected by urban violence to better manage day-to-day occurrences and to understand and challenge the structures which cause it.   The journal''s editorial urges policymakers to recognise violence as an integral part of development and consider measures to reduce, manage or contest it, rather than trying to "solve" the problem.   "Lethal violence and its associated fear continues to escalate in cities across the world. While it may be considered controversial, we need to adopt a different position on urban violence and recognise that it is not going to go away," says the journal''s co-editor Caroline Moser, of the Global Urban Research Centre, University of Manchester. "Instead of trying to solve the problem, policymakers need to focus on empowering local communities to contest and confront the structural and political causes that lead to urban violence."   One paper in the journal sets out the most important emerging trends on gangs in recent years. It shows how working with groups at local, national and regional level helps to understand the complex relationship between gangs, their identities and what motivates them. Understanding how these groups are structured rather than trying to dismantle them has proved effective in reducing gang-related violence.   Another paper points to responses to gender-based violence that tends to be more frequent and acute in cities in the global South. This goes beyond individual measures, such as women carrying pepper sprays or learning self-defence, to collective solutions in which women work together to identify their right to live, work and move in the city without fearing the day-to-day threat of violence.   "In cities, the response to violence needs to engage all key actors, particularly at local level. These responses also need to address the everyday violence which in most cities has far more impact than the occasional more sensational stories of violence reported in the international media," says Cathy McIlwaine of Queen Mary, University of London, who co-edited the journal alongside Moser.   In the past, it was widely thought that violence in cities could be addressed through added resources, or new policies that focus on increased security. This often leads external agencies to focus on technical solutions that are easy to implement but fail to tackle the structural causes of violence or achieve success. This has been partly continued by the arrival of humanitarian agencies in cities of the South who are now intervening to address violence alongside their emergency relief efforts.   "The early optimism that violence could be addressed as a time-bound issue is fast disappearing. While it may deepen, transform and mutate into unforeseeable forms, violence in cities is here to stay," continues Moser. "With this in mind, we can move towards a more nuanced understanding of urban violence and a more realistic assessment of what can and cannot be done to reduce, better manage and contest it."   This issue of the journal comes ten years after Environment and Urbanization''s first special issue on "Urban Violence and Insecurity". As well as this paradigm shift in the overall approach on how to manage violence in cities, this issue also reflects on aspects that have gained importance in the last decade.   A notable change is the dramatic increase in conflict in urban areas, with many cities now being primary sites for warfare. Although conflict has always been present in some form, it is now of greater critical importance in cities in the global South, which are increasingly defined not only by violence but also by conflict.   This issue of the journal provides new insights which could help those affected to manage violence on a day-to-day basis, as well as empower them to question and address the causes.   Papers included in this edition of the journal entitled "New frontiers in twenty-first century urban conflict and violence":   Deconstructing the fragile city: exploring insecurity, violence and resilience; Visible and invisible violence and inequality in neoliberal Santiago; Security scales: spectacular and endemic violence in post-invasion Kabul, Afghanistan; Rethinking access to land and violence in post-war cities: reflections from Juba, Southern Sudan; Gangs in global perspective; Everyday urban violence and transnational displacement of Colombian urban migrants to London, UK; The "humanitarianization" of urban violence; Partnerships for women’s safety in the city: "four legs for a good table", and Knowledge transfer on urban violence: from Brazil to Haiti.   http://www.iied.org/new-approach-paves-way-manage-violence-cities-global-south http://eau.sagepub.com/content/26/2 http://eau.sagepub.com/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/new-buzzword-aid-and-why-agencies-are-slow-act Visit the related web page
	ICRC alarmed over unacceptable use of explosive weapons in urban areas by International Committee of the Red Cross   13 Oct 2014   Geneva (ICRC) – Ahead of its address to the United Nations General Assembly First Committee in New York this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is renewing its call on parties to armed conflicts not to use explosive weapons that have a wide impact area in densely populated areas – because of their devastating consequences for civilians.   In recent and ongoing hostilities, artillery, mortars, air-delivered general purpose bombs, rockets and multiple launch rocket systems, among other explosive weapons, have taken a terrible toll on civilians, causing death, injury, disability and trauma. The use of such weapons in populated areas – where there is a strong likelihood of indiscriminate effects due to their imprecision or large blast and fragmentation range – is unacceptable.   "A mortar hit my living room without warning, injuring my young kids. My boy died on the way to hospital. My daughter’s arm is still bad but she’ll survive. We look after her full time now so can’t work, we rely on neighbours for food. We''ve not yet been able to repair the house.” Father-of-two, eastern Afghanistan   "Ultimately, civilians in Syria, Gaza, Israel, Afghanistan, Libya, eastern Ukraine and other conflict hotspots pay the price when the shells aimed at military targets end up hitting homes, hospitals and schools,” said ICRC President Peter Maurer. “This simply has to stop.”   “These explosive weapons are designed for open battlefields, not built-up urban areas. From the evidence of recent conflicts, we seriously question whether they can be used to target military objectives in populated areas with enough accuracy, or indeed whether their effects can be limited as required by international humanitarian law,” he added. “This is not about the weapons themselves – it’s about where and how they are used.”   Civilian casualties and damaged or destroyed buildings are the most visible effects of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. But less visible damage, to vital water and electrical supply systems for example, can have an equally harmful impact on health care at times when hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties, and more generally hamper people’s ability to survive.   “We spent the night in the basement as my parents are old and didn’t want us to leave home despite all the fighting. Next morning, my house was cut to pieces, the roof gone. 3 months on, the nightmares still don’t let me sleep. The shelling feels like yesterday.” Villager, Donetsk province, Eastern Ukraine   Warfare in urban settings presents challenges that need addressing. All parties to armed conflicts must take steps to protect civilians from the effects of hostilities. Operating from within urban areas places civilians at risk. Nonetheless, attacking forces must take constant care to minimize the impact of their operations on civilians, including through their choice of means and methods of warfare. Alternative weapons and tactics should be considered. Visit the related web page
	View more stories