WILPF submits views on human rights, youth, and firearms
WILPF turned in a submission to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) in October that examines the human rights impact of firearms possession, acquisition, and use on youth. The submission was made in response to a call for inputs issued by the UNOHCHR, following the adoption of Human Rights Council resolution 45/13 on human rights and the regulation of civilian acquisition, possession and use of firearms.
The resolution requests “the High Commissioner to prepare a report on the human rights impact of the civilian acquisition, possession and use of firearms by children and youth, with a view to contributing to the strengthening or the development of comprehensive public policies based on socioeconomic interventions and services that address the factors driving firearms-related violence, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its forty-eighth session”.
WILPF's submission was led by the disarmament and human rights programmes, but features inputs from WILPF Sections and partners working on and/or living in Colombia, Cameroon, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Palestine, and Syria on the topic of children and youth and firearms. Additional input was received from an informal partner organisation in Italy, and partners to WILPF’s project “Countering Militarised Masculinities, Mobilising Men for Feminist Peace.”
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) continues to welcome the Human Rights Council’s (HRC) growing efforts to link human rights perspectives and concerns with arms control and disarmament efforts. In this respect, we welcome the HRC’s eight resolutions since 2013 strengthening the links between the protection of human rights and disarmament1 and related reports by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.