Small Arms and Light Weapons
The use and effects of SALW have differentiated impacts on women and men.
Some gender issues to consider in various aspects of SALW, are:
Some gender issues to consider in various aspects of SALW, are:
- Ownership and Access: data is scarce, yet it reveals a substantial gap between male and female civilian firearm owners and users. Women’s gun ownership and awareness is not independent of their environment. In conflict or post-conflict settings, such as in Sudan, Libya, and Somaliland, more women acknowledged the presence of firearms.
- Misuse and Effects. Men constitute an absolute majority of both perpetrators - and victims in firearm-related incidents. Men are often represented among perpetrators than victims. On the contrary, women are several times more often victims than perpetrators. Between 2010 and 2015, an estimated 16 per cent of the people who died violently were women and girls. (Small Arms Survey).
- Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence: Men are more often at risk of firearm misuse by their non-intimate acquaintances or persons they may not know, women are more at risk in a domestic context, from their intimate partners.
- Masculinity and Cultural Norms: Possession, use and misuse, small arms are closely linked with specific expressions of masculinity in society, i.e. certain roles, practices and expectations attributed to men which encourage risk-taking behaviour among them.
- Women are still underrepresented in SALW control policy making. Underrepresentation of women hinders the articulation of diverse perspectives and affects policy outcomes. Yet, women and women’s organizations play a vital role in advocating for stricter SALW regulations.
Steps to ensure that women’s interests and needs are included in national DDR programmes:
- Establish quotas for women participating in peace negotiations and decision-making bodies on DDR, including in peace accords;
- Support women to participate in these processes by providing training, education and the necessary resources;
- Ensure that female participants in the DDR programme and a range of women’s views―e.g. leaders representing different social, political, geographical, and economic groups, including disadvantaged groups―are taken into consideration during DDR planning and implementation;
- Hire gender experts to inform all stages of planning and implementation;
- Ensure that the national DDR authority has an explicit mandate and legal framework governing DDR programming for women
