Implementing period: February 2020 - March 2023

Budget: US$1,899,999

Through this project, the UNODC’s Global Firearms Programme (GFP) assisted the jurisdictions in the Western Balkans to strengthen their criminal justice response to firearms related criminality and reach the goals and targets established under the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans (Roadmap).

UNODC’s GFP provided support in four of its mandated areas: (i) legislative assistance to apply the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto (UNTOC) and its Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition (Firearms Protocol), with a focus on the criminal and criminal procedural law provisions; (ii) support for enhancing the knowledge and skills of law enforcement and prosecutors to detect, investigate and prosecute firearms trafficking cases; (iii) support for collection and analysis of criminal justice data; and (iv) facilitation of international cooperation between criminal justice practitioners.

The UNODC GFP’s assisted the Western Balkans jurisdictions to achieve measurable results in the implementation of the Roadmap, including harmonized legal frameworks, and an increase in the number of cases of firearms trafficking and their links to other serious crimes investigated and individuals brought to justice, prosecuted and adjudicated for firearms trafficking offences.

Overall achievements:

• Legislation harmonized with the UN Firearms Protocol:
  • UNODC produced six legislative gap analyses, in Albania, BiH, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo*. These analyses identified areas where the criminal legislation was not harmonized with the requirements set forth in the UN Firearms Protocol (UN FP). Out of all the jurisdictions, Kosovo was identified as having its criminal code already in line with the UN FP.
  • In addition, three comparative analyses of the material and procedural regulation of illicit trafficking offences (drugs, firearms and human trafficking) in Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia were developed in 2021. These papers serve as a basis for further harmonization of criminal justice legislation with the UN FP.
  • Throughout the project’s implementation, the UNODC provided continuous support to all jurisdictions, including to the working groups under the Ministry of Justice in Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, to address the identified gaps and bring criminal legislation in line with the UN FP. It also facilitated regional exchange on this subject, creating a solid basis for harmonizing criminal legislation at the regional level.
  • To support the drafting of the new provisions, the UNODC organized meetings with legislative experts and members of the legal committees of Parliaments. These meetings aimed to raise awareness among MPs about the necessary changes in firearms criminal legislation.
  • As a result of the project, progress was marked across the jurisdictions on harmonizing criminal legislation with the UN Firearms Protocol, though at various levels. Concrete provisions were provided to authorities for consideration or incorporation in respective legislation. In North Macedonia and Montenegro, amended criminal codes were officially adopted, with provisions harmonized with the UN FP. The achieved progress will be built upon in the subsequent project’s phase that the UNODC will implement within the MPTF.
     
• Increased capacity and resources of WB authorities to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate firearms trafficking:
  • Supported the development of comprehensive Guidelines on Investigation and Prosecution of Firearms Offences (Guidelines). The Guidelines were the result of extensive collaboration and three expert group meetings between experts from 30 jurisdictions, including the Western Balkans ones, along with leading organizations such as FRONTEX, INTERPOL, and NABIS. The Guidelines were translated into Albanian, Macedonian, and BSCM languages, thereby ensuring their accessibility and relevance to practitioners in the region. The Guidelines were integrated as a training material into curricula of judicial academies and training centers across Serbia, North Macedonia, BiH, Albania, and Montenegro.
  • A comprehensive capacity development programme was developed and implemented on the identification and tracing of firearms, and collection and admissibility of electronic evidence. 281 prosecutors and law enforcement officers (139 women and 142 men) enhanced their knowledge and skills on the matter through 12 specialized training sessions. This included creating a Practical Guide on collecting electronic evidence, which were made accessible in all Western Balkans languages, as well as four video modules for firearm identification.
  • 14 inter-institutional meetings were supported, with law enforcement, customs services and Prosecutor’s Offices from all jurisdictions, resulting in enhanced inter-institutional exchange, fostered dialogue and collaboration towards the more effective implementation of the Criminal Procedure Code, particularly in firearms cases.
  • Through five community of practitioners’ meetings, UNODC enabled 228 criminal justice practitioners (104 women and 124 men) to review ongoing practice, collectively assess contentious legal questions, discuss procedural issues, establish common sentencing practices, better understand special investigative measures (SIMs) and utilization of SIMs in response to firearms offenses. This contributed to the harmonization and standardization of court practices in firearms related cases across the region.
  • Six Firearms Case Law collections were developed, one for each jurisdiction, as a valuable tool for strengthening institutional capacities in responding to illicit firearms trade. Additional case law collection was developed on the application of special investigative measures in illicit trafficking cases in Serbia.
  • 100 court verdicts from the Western Balkans jurisdictions relating to firearms cases were published in the online database SHERLOC, resulting in the Western Balkans having the largest number of firearms cases available online compared to any other region globally. This established a foundation for comparative analysis and harmonization of court practices among the jurisdictions and for enhancing the overall understanding and management of firearms-related offenses.
     
• Systematic collection and analysis of criminal justice data across the Criminal Justice Sector
  • The UNODC developed and validated a baseline assessment on the firearms data in the criminal justice system across the Western Balkans jurisdictions, including identification of institutions responsible for data collection and processing, an analysis of data collection practices, and a set of recommendations to improve these practices within each jurisdiction. The baseline assessment also offered a comparative analysis between the jurisdictions' data and UNODC's Illicit Arms Flows Questionnaires (IAFQ), providing a holistic perspective on the data landscape and laying the groundwork for more harmonized and efficient data collection strategies in the future.
     

The project contributed to Roadmap Goals 1, 2, 3 and key performance indicators 1, 3, 8, 9 and 10 of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans.

Implementing period: June 2021 – December 2023

Budget: $1,604,153

The project, implemented by UNODC's Global Firearms Programme (GFP) in partnership with INTERPOL, provided support to the Western Balkans jurisdictions to collect and analyze criminal justice data, facilitated and strengthened the cooperation and information exchange between criminal justice practitioners, and supported the detection of illicit firearms trafficking. The assistance by both organizations resulted in the Western Balkans jurisdictions achieving measurable results in the implementation of the Roadmap, including strengthened connection of police services to INTERPOL’s Illicit Arms Records, Tracing Management System (iARMS), information exchange with countries located along connected routes and understanding of the gaps in the detection of firearms in postal shipments.

The project was based on the need of the law enforcement authorities to be able to request and obtain information and intelligence from other Western Balkans jurisdictions and beyond at different stages of firearms investigation, from the phase of gathering criminal intelligence to the phase of criminal investigation. Exchange of information was recognized as an important pre-requisite to gather evidence from abroad to support complex investigations and prosecution of criminal networks and individuals engaged in firearms trafficking and related crimes. The project activities sought to ensure that certain types of firearms related information and evidence, which is vital for law enforcement authorities, is exchanged expeditiously among law enforcement agencies in the Western Balkans jurisdictions and that evidence-based approaches are applied also with regards to the collection, analysis, sharing and use of firearms related data and information.

Overall achievements:

• Increased capacity of the Western Balkans jurisdictions to systematically collect, analyse and exchange the criminal justice data and information across the criminal justice sector.
  • Five needs assessments were finalized (in Albania, BiH, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia), on information exchange in criminal matters, and on extending iARMS access to relevant national law enforcement agencies through the extension of the I-24/7 secure network. By the end of the project, access to the I-24/7 network and iARMS was extended to the Agency for Forensics of BiH and the AIRCOP Unit, North Macedonia. Further extensions were underway in North Macedonia, Albania, and BiH.
  • Five training courses on the use of iARMS were delivered, with 96 practitioners (80 men, 16 women; BiH-20, Serbia-22, Montenegro-24, North Macedonia-24, Albania-6) enhancing their understanding and skills on the use of iARMS use. Additional 3 trainings were delivered in North Macedonia, Albania, and BiH, in a form of mentoring session using real data and case studies, to reinforce application of the procedures by officials, in a step-by-step approach. iARMS user manual was translated into 5 official Western Balkans languages and copies were sent to WB jurisdictions in the respective languages, as a continuous resource.
  • 23 law enforcement officers (18 men, 5 women) from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia were trained and certified by INTERPOL as trainers on the use of INTERPOL tools.
  • INTERPOL provided beneficiary countries with equipment for the extension of the I-24/7 network (secure police communications system) and/or iARMS database access, as per the needs assessed during the assessment visits. The following equipment was provided:
    • Albania – State Police: 4 desktop computers with monitors;
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina – State Investigation and Protection Agency and INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB): 2 desktop computers with monitors, 4 laptops, 2 DVD readers/writers, and 2 external hard drives;
    • Montenegro – Police Administration: 10 desktop computers with monitors;
    • North Macedonia – Ballistic Unit, Criminal Police, Criminal Department, AIRCOP Unit, and INTERPOL NCB: 5 desktop computers with monitors, 2 laptops, and 1 FTP cable;
    • Serbia – Service for Criminal Analysis, Service for Crime Prevention, Department for Combating Organized Crime, Service for Criminal Intelligence, National Centre for Crime Forensics and Administrative Affairs: 21 desktop computers with monitors and 4 laptops;
       
• Enhanced capacity of the Western Balkans jurisdictions for regional and international cooperation to counter the trafficking in firearms.
  • Developed a sub-regional report on firearms trafficking into, from, and through the Western Balkans.
  • A regional exchange of firearms trafficking data into, from, and through the WB was facilitated through a meeting of a transnational / transregional scope. 17 representatives (7 women and 10 men) from Albania, BiH, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, as well as from France, Bulgaria, Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands (the latter countries being identified as having connected routes) discussed the preliminary findings of the sub-regional report and exchanged on firearms trafficking data. The meeting also included the presence of nine civil society representatives (4 women and 5 men), thus fostering the engagement and meaningful exchanges between government representatives and civil society.
     
• Assessed capacity to detect firearms trafficking via postal shipments and its links to other serious crimes.
  • Four needs assessments^[1] were developed and verified with the authorities on the detection of firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition in postal and express courier shipments, in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia.

The project contributed to Roadmap Goals 2 and 3, and key performance indicators 6, 8, and 9 of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans.

[1] Needs assessment for BiH was completed as part of the Project HALT implemented in BiH through the Trust Fund support.

Implementing period: February 2023 - December 2023

Budget: US$ 800,129

The project, under the implementation of UNODC's Global Firearms Programme (GFP), supported the six Western Balkans (WB) jurisdictions in enhancing the regulatory framework and capacities to prevent and counter trafficking in firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition in express courier and postal parcels. The project Hermes was developed based on GFP’s methodology to address these threats and the experience in implementing relevant project activities in BiH and Ukraine. The project aimed to improve the regulatory framework for counter-trafficking through the development of specific standard operating procedures and memoranda of understanding, and thus advance practice within customs administrations, designated postal operators, postal services regulators, and law enforcement services. In addition, the project supported the customization and harmonization of procedures across the region by organizing regional meetings and study visits to support information exchange on good practices. The project also included the procurement of detection equipment for the Albanian Customs Administration to address identified gap and improve respective capabilities in line with project’s objective.

Overall achievements:

• Improved regulatory framework in the Western Balkans for countering trafficking in firearms, their parts, components, ammunition, and explosives via postal shipments.
  • Eight Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were developed and signed between the customs authorities and designated postal operators in the Western Balkans region (3 MoUs in BiH between Customs and the 3 DPOs, 1 in Albania, 1 in Kosovo, 1 in Montenegro, 1 in Serbia, and 1 in North Macedonia). 10 SOPs were developed and seven signed by the end of the project (3 are pending in Albania and Serbia^[1]). To this end, UNODC organized 12 workshops, gathering 116 representatives of customs and postal operators from the region (25 women and 91 men), including the active participation of and collaboration with international bodies like GIZ, UPU, EMPACT Firearms, and various customs and police services. The jurisdictions established working groups for cooperation between customs and DPOs that reviewed the existing regulation frameworks, and with UNODC’s support, they prepared drafts of MoUs and SOPs that were subsequently finalized and approved.
  • The UNODC in cooperation with the French Customs organized in May 2023 a study visit for all WB jurisdictions to Charles de Gaulle Airport, France (14 officials, 1 woman and 13 men). The WB experts learned from the good practice of the French authorities, they received information about the work organization of the French Customs, La Poste, and express courier companies and the application of risk analysis to identify parcels containing prohibited goods. The participants also observed the work of their French counterparts in the postal depots and the teamwork between French Customs and La Poste on inspecting suspicious parcels.
  • Two sub-regional meetings that ensued in June 2023 enabled debriefing with participants of the study visit to CDG Airport and facilitated the progress review in drafting SOPs and MoUs. The meetings gathered 53 officials (13 women, 40 men) in total, with the meeting in Pristina (for Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia) involving 24 officials (5 women and 19 men) and the meeting in Sarajevo (for BiH, Montenegro, and Serbia) involving 29 officials (8 women and 21 men). The meetings included representatives of the French Customs and EMPACT Firearms, and ensured exchange of good practice, challenges and the aspects of harmonization of approaches towards tackling firearms trafficking in postal parcels. This helped identification of further areas of cooperation with the French Customs and within Operation Armstrong regarding the detection of firearms in postal parcels, which will be pursued in the future.
     
• Enhanced technical capacities of the Albanian Customs Administration to detect firearms their part, components, ammunition, and explosives via postal shipments
  • The Albanian Customs Administration was equipped with a specialized equipment, the Smiths Detection HazMatID Elite, and with 10 hand-held metal detectors, and 3 laptops. In December 2023, UNODC delivered specialized training on the use of the HazmatID Elite detector for 4 Albanian officials (4 men) in the UNODC Laboratory in Vienna. The equipment is expected to improve the effectiveness of postal security by enabling more accurate detection of explosives and metal firearms components.
     

UNODC plans to further build upon the achieved progress and results in the upcoming period, through the project’s next phase.

The project contributed to Roadmap Goals 2 and 3 and key performance indicators 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans.
 

[1] In the course of 2024, the SOPs for Customs and DPO in Serbia got signed. The SOPs in Albania (2, one for Customs and one for DPO) remain pending signature.

Implementing period: October 2024 – October 2025

Budget: $1,280,387

Project Hermes is aimed at increasing the capacities of the Western Balkans jurisdictions to counter trafficking of firearms, their parts, ammunition and explosives through Express Courier and postal parcels. The project builds upon a pilot initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2020 to 2022 and the project’s first phase implemented by UNODC in 2023.

Under Hermes Phase 2.1, UNODC will support all jurisdictions in the Western Balkans region to strengthen their response to firearms trafficking via postal parcels through the provision of advanced courses for X-ray operators, workshops targeting analytical units of customs administrations and designated postal operators (DPOs), and through the delivery of specialized equipment to customs administrations and DPOs.

The project contributes to Roadmap Goals 3 and 4 and key performance indicators 3, 4, 8, 9 of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans.