UNDP Report Highlights SEESAC’s Role in Supporting the Western Balkans’ Progress as a Global Reference for Arms Control

UNDP’s Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Justice and Security for Sustainable Peace and Development has published its 2025 Annual Report, taking stock of a year in which armed conflict remained at historic levels, with the highest number of state-based conflicts recorded since the mid-1940s.

In 2025, the Global Programme provided financial, technical and expert support to over 100 countries and territories. Through the UNDP–UN Women Gender Justice Platform, more than 900,000 people received legal aid in conflict and fragile settings, while in Yemen more than 100 women paralegals helped resolve nearly 3,000 disputes. The year also marked the completion of the Programme’s fourth phase, with a fifth phase starting in 2026.

Among the results featured, the report points to the Western Balkans as a reference model for arms control beyond the region, highlighting the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Control Roadmap as an example of what regional cooperation in the security sector can achieve.

The report describes the SALW Control Roadmap as “internationally acknowledged as a transformative regional framework for sustainable arms control.” Its influence is reflected in the adoption of a Roadmap by Central America and the Dominican Republic in February 2025, and in the development of a similar framework by the Andean Community in 2026. The Western Balkans Roadmap also received political recognition at the Berlin Process Summit in London in October 2025, where its importance for regional cooperation and European security was reaffirmed.

In 2025, SEESAC supported the destruction of over 3,400 small arms and light weapons, trained more than 500 police officers, prosecutors and civil society representatives, engaged 18 women’s organizations in gender-responsive arms control, and provided authorities with equipment worth more than US$2 million.

Two regional cooperation platforms, the regional SALW Commissions process and the South East Europe Firearms Experts Network (SEEFEN), continued to meet regularly, bringing together representatives from the Western Balkans, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, and contributed to “the prevention of armed violence and the rule of law across Southeast and Eastern Europe” as highlighted in the report.

SEESAC also supported further alignment with the EU acquis through gap assessments, expert assistance and a regional workshop in Brussels. Civil society engagement remained an important part of its work, including a regional workshop on Gender and SALW that brought together 18 organizations from across the Western Balkans.

As Secretariat of the Western Balkans SALW Control Roadmap Multi-Partner Trust Fund, SEESAC coordinated and monitored nine projects with a combined value of US$15.4 million. The Fund received US$1.86 million in new contributions in 2025, bringing total contributions to US$31 million. Its duration was extended until 31 December 2028.

SEESAC’s work is made possible with the financial support of the European Union, which has supported SALW control in Southeast and East Europe for over two decades.

The full 2025 Annual Report is available on the following link.