4th Regional SALW Commissions Meeting

Budva, Montenegro – The Fourth Regional Meeting of Commissions for Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) was held on 25-26 May 2015, bringing together representatives of SALW commissions from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYROM), Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia and Kosovo*.  

The meeting was opened by the Chairman of Montenegro’s SALW Commission Mr. Mladen Marković, Senior Advisor on Security Policy from the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Mr. Marinko Raos, and SEESAC Coordinator Dr. Ivan Zveržhanovski.

Welcoming participants, Dr. Zveržhanovski stressed that "by bringing together representatives of SALW Commissions from the region, SEESAC facilitates confidence-building, fosters the transfer of expertise, and enables exchange of information while promoting common regional solutions”.

SALW strategies, legislation and policies, new SEESAC knowledge products and EU integration were the main topics of discussion. Participants focused on the progress and challenges in implementing SALW control strategies and shared experiences from recent and ongoing SALW collection efforts.

A special focus was on the topic of victims of firearms, with participants identifying trends in relation to location of incident, victim and perpetrator demographics, type of incidents, type of firearms used and impact on the victim. The analysis of such data will serve as a baseline for developing arms control policies, as well as future interventions in support of firearms victims. Participants agreed  to work to improve data gathering and fill the existing gaps.

Within its mandate to support the work of stakeholders in improving SALW control, SEESAC presented two new knowledge products. The analysis of the data collected through the Oružje na meti (Targeting Weapons) platform covering Serbia was presented as a pilot project with the objective to gain more insight into the misuse of SALW and its impact. Furthermore, the online South East Europe Arms Law Compendium was completed and presented as a tool in support of harmonization of arms control and export legislation in SEE.

Following updates on legislation, participants engaged in a discussion on the implementation of Chapter 24 of the EU Acquis – Justice, Freedom and Security with emphasis on SALW Control. UNDP Regional Advisor on EU Integration Dr. Filip Dragović gave an overview on how to comply SALW Control policies and legislative measures and their impact on Chapter 24 implementation.

The next regional meeting of SALW Commissions is planned for November 2015.

These regional meetings are an activity implemented under the EU Support of SEESAC Disarmament and Arms Control Activities in South East Europe (EUSAC) project, initiated through the Council Decision 2013/730/CFSP.

 

 
ABOUT EUSAC

The EUSAC builds directly upon SEESAC’s decade-long SALW Control work, particularly achievements made through the previous EU funded SALW Control project, conducted during the 2010-2012 period under the Council Decision 2010/179/CFSP.  Designed in close cooperation with national authorities, the project works on the following five interrelated streams of activities:

 

  • Increased security of stockpiles: through the renovation and security improvements to storages of arms and ammunition.
  • Stockpile reduction: through the destruction of surplus arms and ammunition held in storages.
  • Improved marking, tracing and registration of SALW: through the provision of support to the establishment or enhancement of existing weapons registration and record-keeping systems.
  • Improved regional cooperation on awareness raising, information sharing and knowledge transfer: through the facilitation of regional cooperation between national institutions tasked with arms control.
  • Implementation of collection and awareness raising campaigns




* References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).

 

 

 

 

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