Action on Armed Violence

Last updated
Action on Armed Violence (AOAV)
Type Non-profit NGO
Focus Human rights, activism
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Productnonprofit human rights advocacy
Key people
 Iain Overton
Website aoav.org.uk

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) is a London-based charity, conducting research and advocacy on the incidence and impact of global armed violence.

Contents

Iain Overton, an investigative journalist and author, [1] is the Executive Director of the organisation. [2]

AOAV's research and advocacy work is focused on global armed violence, with a specialisation in explosive weapons. [3] One of the charity's core functions is its Explosive Violence Monitor. [4] This monitor has been cited by organisations such as Reuters, [5] The Guardian , [6] Al Jazeera, [3] Human Rights Watch, [7] and the United Nations. [8]

Conflict casualty data

In December 2020, AOAV's data was reported in The Guardian as showing that British soldiers were 12% more likely to have been killed than their American counterparts during the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study of casualty figures. The research – intended as a lessons learned exercise – also concluded that UK forces were 26% more likely to have been killed by improvised explosives, validating longstanding complaints about the poorly armoured Snatch Land Rover. [9]

In May 2021, AOAV's explosive violence data was also reported in The Guardian as showing that "Civilians accounted for 91% of those killed or injured by explosive weapons in populated areas worldwide over the last 10 years – a total of 238,892 people – according to a study of thousands of incidents." [10]

Recording civilian harm

In March 2019, AOAV was reported by the BBC as finding out that the RAF killed or injured 4,315 enemy fighters in Iraq and Syria between September 2014 and January 2019. Of those harmed, 4,013, or 93%, were killed, and 302, or 7%, were injured. The UK's Ministry of Defence had said only one civilian was killed in the airstrikes, according to figures released to the charity. However AOAV expressed scepticism at such a low rate of civilian casualties. [11]

In April 2021, AOAV was reported by The Independent as finding out that Black people are three times more likely to be killed on the streets of London than other ethnic groups. Almost half of all murder victims in the capital in 2019 were Black despite them making up only 13 per cent of the city’s population. [12]

In May 2021, AOAV was reported by Al Jazeera as finding out that between 2016 and 2020, 40 percent of all civilian air strike casualties in Afghanistan were children. AOAV had reported that, of the 3,977 casualties caused over five years, 1,598 were children killed or wounded in attacks from the air. Civilian casualties resulting from air strikes by the Afghan Air Force during the first six months of 2020 had tripled compared to the same time period in 2019. [13]

Monitoring the arms trade

In August 2016, The New York Times cited AOAV's research into 14 years’ worth of Pentagon contract information related to weapons supplied to American troops and for their partners and proxies. AOAV found the Pentagon provided more than 1.45 million firearms to various security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, including more than 978,000 assault rifles, 266,000 pistols and almost 112,000 machine guns. [14]

In January 2021, The Guardian cited [15] AOAV's research on the UK government's approval of exports between January 2015 and June 2020 to countries listed by the Department for International Trade as 'subject to arms embargo, trade sanctions and other trade restrictions'. [16] AOAV found that Britain had approved exports of military items to 80% of the destinations on the list. AOAV also found that UK export licences for small arms and ammunition have been approved to 31 destinations on the embargoed and restricted list, including assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles and shotguns. Many of these sent to areas that have recently suffered from violent conflicts or state oppression, including Kenya, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Togo, Oman, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Pakistan. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arms trafficking</span> Illegal trafficking or smuggling of contraband weapons or ammunition

Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal trade of small arms, unlike other organized crime commodities, is more closely associated with exercising power in communities instead of achieving economic gain. Scholars estimate illegal arms transactions amount to over US$1 billion annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Car bomb</span> Improvised explosive device

A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq Body Count project</span> Web-based effort to chronicle casualties of the U.S. invasion and war in Iraq

Iraq Body Count project (IBC) is a web-based effort to record civilian deaths resulting from the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Included are deaths attributable to coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and criminal violence, which refers to excess civilian deaths caused by criminal action resulting from the breakdown in law and order which followed the coalition invasion. As of February 2019, the IBC has recorded 183,249 – 205,785 civilian deaths. The IBC has a media-centered approach to counting and documenting the deaths. Other sources have provided differing estimates of deaths, some much higher. See Casualties of the Iraq War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casualties of the Iraq War</span> Iraq war casualties

Estimates of the casualties from the Iraq War have come in several forms, and those estimates of different types of Iraq War casualties vary greatly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Improvised explosive device</span> Unconventionally produced bomb

An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechanism. IEDs are commonly used as roadside bombs, or homemade bombs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq War</span> War in Iraq from 2003 to 2011

The Iraq War, sometimes called the Second Persian Gulf War was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion of Iraq by the United States-led coalition that overthrew the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011.

During the War in Afghanistan, according to the Costs of War Project the war killed 176,000 people in Afghanistan: 46,319 civilians, 69,095 military and police and at least 52,893 opposition fighters. However, the death toll is possibly higher due to unaccounted deaths by "disease, loss of access to food, water, infrastructure, and/or other indirect consequences of the war." According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, the conflict killed 212,191 people. The Cost of War project estimated in 2015 that the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may be as high as 360,000 additional people based on a ratio of indirect to direct deaths in contemporary conflicts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small arms and light weapons</span> Two classes of man-portable weapons

Small arms and light weapons (SALW) refers in arms control protocols to two main classes of man-portable weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Explosive weapon</span> Explosive used as a weapon

An explosive weapon is a weapon that uses an explosive to project blast and/or fragmentation from a point of detonation.

The Iraq War documents leak is the disclosure to WikiLeaks of 391,832 United States Army field reports, also called the Iraq War Logs, of the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009 and published on the Internet on 22 October 2010. The files record 66,081 civilian deaths out of 109,000 recorded deaths. The leak resulted in the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project adding 15,000 civilian deaths to their count, bringing their total to over 150,000, with roughly 80% of those civilians. It is the biggest leak in the military history of the United States, surpassing the Afghan War documents leak of 25 July 2010.

The 2013 Hawija clashes relate to a series of violent attacks within Iraq, as part of the 2012–2013 Iraqi protests and Iraqi insurgency post-U.S. withdrawal. On 23 April, an army raid against a protest encampment in the city of Hawija, west of Kirkuk, led to dozens of civilian deaths and the involvement of several insurgent groups in organized action against the government, leading to fears of a return to a wide-scale Sunni–Shia conflict within the country. By 27 April, more than 300 people were reported killed and scores more injured in one of the worst outbreaks of violence since the U.S. withdrawal in December 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War against the Islamic State</span> Military actions against the Islamic State

Many states began to intervene against the Islamic State, in both the Syrian Civil War and the War in Iraq (2013–2017), in response to its rapid territorial gains from its 2014 Northern Iraq offensives, universally condemned executions, human rights abuses and the fear of further spillovers of the Syrian Civil War. These efforts are called the war against the Islamic State, or the war against ISIS. In later years, there were also minor interventions by some states against IS-affiliated groups in Nigeria and Libya. All these efforts significantly degraded the Islamic State's capabilities by around 2019–2020. While moderate fighting continues in Syria, as of 2024, ISIS has been contained to a manageably small area and force capability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war</span> Saudi war against Houthis in Yemen launched in 2015

On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched an intervention in Yemen at the request of Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had been ousted from the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 by Houthi insurgents during the Yemeni Civil War. Efforts by the United Nations to facilitate a power sharing arrangement under a new transitional government collapsed, leading to escalating conflict between government forces, Houthi rebels, and other armed groups, which culminated in Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia shortly before it began military operations in the country.

Events from the year 2019 in Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casualty recording</span> Recording deaths from conflict or violence

Casualty recording is the systematic and continuous process of documenting individual direct deaths from armed conflict or widespread violence. It aims to create a comprehensive account of all deaths within a determined scope, usually bound by time and location.

During the Yemeni civil war, Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition of nine nations from the Middle East and parts of Africa in response to calls from the internationally recognized pro-Saudi president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after he was ousted by the Houthi movement due to economic and political grievances, and fled to Saudi Arabia.

The 20-year-long War in Afghanistan had a number of significant impacts on Afghan society.

References

  1. ↑ "Pharmacies facing lateral flow test shortage due to 'supply chain issues' as Omicron spreads". inews.co.uk. 2021-12-20. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
  2. ↑ Jones, Murray (2020-10-07). "Sanitising War: How the UK Media Turned Its Back On Syria". Byline Times. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  3. 1 2 Barbarani, Sofia. "US army data on civilian harm in war against ISIL questioned". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  4. ↑ "AOAV's Explosive Violence Monitor". AOAV. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  5. ↑ Saraogi, Varsha (2018-01-08). "Civilian deaths from explosives surge in 2017 - campaign group". Reuters (in French). Retrieved 2020-12-02.[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ Norton-Taylor, Richard (2016-04-26). "Number of civilians killed or injured by explosives rises 50% in five years". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  7. ↑ "A Commitment to Civilians". Human Rights Watch. 2019-11-18. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  8. ↑ "Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) – UNODA" . Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  9. ↑ "UK soldiers 12% more likely to die than US troops in 'war on terror'". Guardian. 2020-04-12. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  10. ↑ "Explosive weapons used in cities kill civilians 91% of time, finds study". Guardian. 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
  11. ↑ "RAF killed '4,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria'". BBC News. 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  12. ↑ "Black Londoners three times more likely to be murdered than other ethnic groups, figures show" . The Independent. 2021-04-12. Archived from the original on 2021-04-12. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  13. ↑ "Afghanistan: Nearly 1,600 child casualties in the past five years". Al Jazeera. 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  14. ↑ Chivers, C. J. (2016-08-24). "How Many Guns Did the U.S. Lose Track of in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of Thousands. (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  15. ↑ "UK sells arms to nearly 80% of countries under restrictions, says report". The Guardian. January 26, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Trade sanctions, arms embargoes, and other trade restrictions". gov.uk.
  17. ↑ "UK approves military exports to 80% of countries on own restricted list". January 26, 2021.
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