LONDON – Violence in all its forms kills 1.6 million people worldwide each year and around half the deaths are suicides, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report. The report, released Thursday, says violence is among the leading causes of death from the mid-teens to middle age.

Whether it is war, homicide, suicide or domestic, sexual or community abuse, violence pervades all levels of society and costs billions of dollars a year in healthcare and law enforcement costs, as well as lost productivity.

Dr. Etienne Krug is the author of the first WHO report on violence. Three years in the making and with input from 160 experts from around the globe, the report is the most comprehensive account of the cruelty humans inflict on each other and themselves ever compiled. Out of 1.6 million annual violent deaths, half were suicides, one third homicides and 20 percent were war related. Suicide accounted for an estimated 815,000 deaths in 2000, making it the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Three times as many elderly people, over 75 years old, kill themselves as 15-24 year olds.

Eastern European people have the highest suicide rate, countries in Latin America and a few in Asia have the lowest. In the same year about 520,000 people died as result of domestic, youth, family or institutional violence including rape, sexual assault and abuse of children and the elderly. Krug added that as many as 70 percent of women in some countries have been abused by their husbands and said he was shocked by the level of sexual violence particularly with up to 30 percent of women in some countries saying their first sexual encounter was forced.

According to the report, the 20th century was one of the most violent in history. About 191 million people, half of them civilians, lost their lives through armed conflict. But former South African President Nelson Mandela, in a foreword in the report, said the world must also face up to the less visible but more widespread legacy of day-to-day individual suffering. Both Mandela and Krug believe violence is not an intrinsic part of the human condition but results from a complexity of causes at individual, family, community and national levels.

The report calls for national action plans for violence prevention, increasing data collection on violence, prevention strategies and better care for victims. It also wants education polices to promote gender and social equality, adherence to international treaties protecting human rights and greater efforts to respond to violence due to global trade in arms and drugs.

Reuters