In March 2015 Small Arms Survey published this research paper, focused on the objective measurement of violent deaths as a composite indicator that can be used for monitoring progress towards Sustainable Development Goals target 16.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals. SDG target 16.1 seeks “To significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere”.
This research paper was released as the 46th Session of the UN Statistical Commission met to seek agreement on modalities for the development of the indicator framework for the post-2015 development agenda and discuss its implementation.
The report reviews the range of available data indicators, which includes the data being compiled by member organisations of the Casualty Recorders Network convened by Every Casualty, as well as the integrative database that Small Arms Survey has been compiling, and which informs its periodic reports on the Global Burden of Armed Violence.
The paper highlights that:
“In the past decade the availability of data on violent deaths has improved substantially in terms of both coverage and comprehensiveness…Countries have a greater capacity to establish and maintain systems for recording violent deaths and to disaggregate the collected data, although large gaps are still present.”
