Presenting New Research: Tracking WHO Attention to Gun Violence, 2000–2025
TIME: 9AM EST, 11AM BRT/UTC-3, 3PM CET, 4PM SAST
DATE: TUESDAY, FEB 10
FORMAT: ONLINE LAUNCH WEBINAR (Click here)
You are invited to the official launch of the Global Coalition for WHO Action on Gun Violence, a new international coalition calling for stronger, more coherent World Health Organization (WHO) leadership on gun violence as a preventable public-health issue. This launch webinar marks the beginning of a coordinated, evidence-driven effort to ensure that gun violence is no longer marginal within global health governance, but addressed with the urgency, coherence, and leadership its health impacts demand.
The launch webinar will present key findings from the newly released research report: Tracking the World Health Organisation’s Attention to Firearm Violence, 2000–2025.
The report is co-published by a consortium of seven academic and civil-society institutions:
The Gender Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland;
The Violence, Inequality and Power Lab, University of San Diego;
The Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Cape Town;
The Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin;
Instituto Sou da Paz;
Gun Free South Africa;
Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) (Trinidad and Tobago).
Together, these partners provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of how firearm violence has been addressed within WHO governance over the past 25 years.
Global Coalition for WHO Action on Gun Violence Launch Webinar
The protea in our logo symbolises resilience, regeneration, and hope—core principles of a public-health approach to preventing gun violence. Native to South Africa and fire-adaptive, the protea survives cycles of stress and emerges renewed, reflecting prevention, healing, and long-term wellbeing.
Moderators
- Claire Somerville, Executive Director, Gender Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute.
- Hine Wai Loose, Director, Control Arms.
Panelists
- Stephen Hargarten, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin; Lancet Commission on Global Gun Violence and Health.
- Folade Mutota, Director, Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD); Lancet Commission on Global Gun Violence and Health.
- Dean Peacock, Visiting Scholar, Gender Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute; Honorary Lecturer, School of Public Health, University of Cape Town; Co-Commissioner, Lancet Commission on Global Gun Violence and Health.
- Carolina Ricardo, Executive Director, Sou da Paz.
- Claire Taylor, Research and Policy Analyst, Gun Free South Africa.
Statement from the floor from student co-authors Aleksandra Nowakowska, Camille Lilli, Tanisha Kohli, Victoria Do Nascimento Houpert, Gender Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute.
About the research
Drawing on a first-ever comprehensive review of World Health Assembly resolutions, a systematic analysis of WHO violence-prevention publications (2000–2025), and expert interviews, the report finds that:
- Firearms have never been mentioned in any World Health Assembly resolution, despite violence being recognised as a public-health priority since 1996;
- WHO attention to gun violence declined markedly after the mid-2000s, including in areas where firearms are a leading cause of death and injury;
- Significant gaps persist in WHO data, guidance, and policy leadership on firearms in relation to femicide, violence against children, community trauma, and mental health; and
- Gun violence remains largely absent from WHO work on social and commercial determinants of health, despite clear parallels with other regulated health-harming industries.
About the Global Coalition for WHO Action on Firearm Violence
The Global Coalition for WHO Action on Gun Violence brings together nearly 100 member organisations from more than 30 countries, spanning public health, medicine, injury prevention, gender justice, human rights, arms control, and survivor advocacy.
The Coalition is guided by a Steering Committee of internationally recognised leaders in gun violence research and policy advocacy, providing strategic direction to ensure that its work is evidence-informed, globally grounded, and aligned with WHO mandates and governance processes.
The Coalition’s shared goals are to:
- Integrate firearm violence prevention explicitly into WHO violence-prevention frameworks and technical guidance;
- Articulate a comprehensive public-health continuum of care, spanning prevention, emergency and trauma care, rehabilitation, and long-term mental-health and community recovery;
- Advance recognition of gun violence as a commercial determinant of health, including meaningful inclusion in the forthcoming WHO World Report on Commercial Determinants of Health; and
- Build momentum toward a World Health Assembly resolution that formally mandates WHO leadership on firearm violence as a global public-health priority.
