On 26 March, the 7^th Regional Information Exchange Process (RIEP) meeting took place on Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the ownership of the process being turned over to the participating countries, the 7^th meeting was co-hosted by Bosnia and Herzegovina and UNDP/SEESAC.  ... read more

On 27 March 2012, a conference on “Gender in Security Sector Reform” was organized by the Marshall Centre Alumni Association in cooperation with the George C. Marshall Centre and with the support of Atlantic Initiative, NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo and United Nations Development Programme and was attended by UNDP/SEESAC representatives Bojana Balo n and Jelena Radakovic in Vitez, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  ... read more

On March 22, UNDP/SEESAC together with the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia hosted the launch of the project that aims to support GENDER EQUALITY IN THE MILITARY. “Support for Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans” is the UNDP/SEESAC project designed to support ministries of defence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia as they integrate gender equality into their institutions.  On this occasion, representatives of the four countries officially SIGNED A JOINT STATEMENT committing themselves to a common set of goals.   ... read more

On 19-20 March 2012, a Workshop for Establishing the Action Plan for the Implementation of Small Arms and Light Weapons National Strategy in the Republic of Serbia for 2010-2015 was held in Zrenjanin, Serbia. The Workshop was hosted by the Serbian Ministry of Interior, with the support of UNDP/SEESAC and was attended by the representative members of the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Council from the Serbian ministries of Defence, Education and Science, Finance (Customs Administration), Foreign Affairs, Health, Interior, Youth and Sport and Security Information Agency.  ... read more

On 13-15 March 2012, the 26^th South Eastern Defense Ministerial Coordination Committee (SEDM-CC) and the 27^th Political and Military Steering Committee (PMSC) meetings were held in Rome, Italy and were attended by UNDP/SEESAC representatives Bojana Balon and Tamara Svircev. The goal of the meetings, chaired by the Deputy Minister of Defence of Italy, was to present the ongoing and future activities of SEDM-CC, PMSC and its 14 participating nations all of which aim to enhance security, stability and regional cooperation in South Eastern Europe. Other participating organizations, namely NATO, NATO NC3A, RACVIAC and RCC also presented their activities and outlined the importance of continuous cooperation in the security sector in the region of South Eastern Europe.  ... read more

On 9 March, another 48 crates containing 1,560 pieces of small arms and light weapons were destroyed by the Croatian Ministry of Interior. The sixteenth such activity brings the total number of destroyed weapons to 23,398 since the end of 2010.  ... read more

At least 200 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured by the blast which took place at the ammunition storage in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo on Sunday 3 March 2012. The reports say that a short-circuit led to a fire which quickly spread throughout the storage site. Frequent explosions continued for hours on early Sunday morning, causing extensive damage to both Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It will take weeks and months to assess the damage of the explosions while the number of killed and injured people grows by the hour.  ... read more

The Croatian Ministry of Interior destroyed additional 1,700 and 1,765 pieces of small arms and light weapons on 27 January and 24 February respectively. The fourteenth and fifteenth destruction activities bring the total number of destroyed weapons up to 21,838.  ... read more

On 23 February, UNDP/Office of Human Security Team Leader a.i. Dr. Ivan Zverzhanovski took part in a discussion panel, reviewing the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) of the UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, in Serbia.  The dialogue was specifically focused on the work of Analytical Groups, which are currently being established in several security ministries and agencies.  ... read more

In anticipation of the forthcoming UN Diplomatic Conference on Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) scheduled to take place in July 2012, several high-level officials representing the humanitarian, development and human rights organizations of the United Nations issued a joint statement underlining the dangers posed by the uncontrolled use and transfer of conventional weapons and their ammunition, and offered several recommendations aimed at addressing the problem.    ... read more