UNDP/SEESAC together with the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Croatia and in close cooperation with the South East Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) began a workshop on Gender and Security within the framework of the Women Police Officers Network in South East Europe (WPON). The aim of this workshop is to further develop the capacity of WPON Council members to act as gender advocates within their police services. Police officers from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are attending the three day seminar which is taking place in Valbandon, Croatia.  ... read more

The 12^th session of the Cetinje Parliamentary Forum, which took place on 6 May 2011, was jointly organized by SEESAC and the Parliament of Montenegro as an activity of the Western Balkans Parliamentary Forum on SALW. The Cetinje Forum serves as a platform for the exchange of experiences in the practice of parliamentary oversight of the security sector in the region and it gathered over forty parliamentarians, government officials, and representatives of international organizations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.  ... read more

The Southeast Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) held its General Assembly meeting in Skopje, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The three-day meeting took place from April 14-16^th 2011 and was hosted by the Ministry of Interior of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.  The Assembly voted on the SEPCA’s 3-year strategy and Action Plan for 2011, chose the new Executive Board, and reviewed project and partner activities. Under the auspices of SEPCA, UNDP/SEESAC implements a project supporting the Women Police Officer’s Network (WPON) aimed at gender mainstreaming in police practice in Southeast Europe. Ms. Jelena Vasiljevic, Chair of the WPON Council,  and Ms. Bojana Balon, WPON Project Manager, reported to the assembly and received unwavering support from the police chiefs for WPON’s activities and 2011 work plan. The work plan envisages capacity development for the WPON council members and development of guidelines for gender mainstreaming in police practice.  ... read more

The fourth meeting of the Regional Information Exchange Process on Arms Export Controls, organized by SEESAC, took place on March 17^th 2011 in Zagreb, Croatia with the participation of delegations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.  ... read more

On 10 March 2011 SEESAC supported the second meeting in Serbia on parliamentary oversight of arms export control. The Ministry of Economy and Regional Development (MERD) hosted the event, which was a follow-up to the national roundtable, held in Belgrade on 12 October 2010. The aim of the event was to further support the development of the capacity of Serbian Members of Parliament (MP) to oversee arms exports. Representatives of MERD and other government agencies in charge of issuance of arms export licences in Serbia provided an update on their work since 12 October 2010 to MPs from the Committee for Defense and Security. A third session for parliamentary oversight was scheduled to take place later in 2011.  ... read more

President Ivo Josipović threw a symbolic first rifle into a cauldron at the CMC Sisak Steel Mill today, marking the first public destruction of small arms in Croatia under the EU Council Decision 2010/179/CFSP of 11 March 2010 in support of SEESAC arms control activities in the Western Balkans, in the framework of the EU Strategy to combat the illicit accumulation and trafficking of SALW and their ammunition. The event, organized by the Ministry of Interior and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), destroyed 2,515 handguns and rifles collected as part of the 'Less Arms - Less Tragedies' campaign.  ... read more

On 01 February 2011, in Zagreb, Croatian bomb squad received new safety equipment worth €70,000, as a part of the EU funded programme designed to promote arms control in Southeast Europe.  ... read more

The Ministry of Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Croatia published their first annual report on export and import of military and non-military lethal goods. The report provides an overview of the exports and imports of controlled goods in the period 1 January to 31 December 2009.  ... read more

On 14-15 September 2010 in Belgrade, SEESAC organized a regional seminar on marking and tracing of weapons. Information about the presentations and the group discussions is available in the seminar report, which can be downloaded here.  ... read more

The presentation of the report was organized on 11 December 2010 in Sofia, Bulgaria, by the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior, SEPCA and SEESAC, with the financial support of the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). The roundtable was opened by Deputy Minister of Interior Mr. Pavlin Dimitrov who expressed his strong support for the improvement of the position of women in the Bulgarian police as a means to increase police efficiency. The Head of the Public Order Directorate in the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior also addressed the meeting. Ms Olga Yoncheva, representing SEPCA, stated that the WPON project was the most successful among the SEPCA initiatives and will be supported in future by the Chiefs of Police.  ... read more