(Guatemala City, January- 2011) –UNLIREC took part in the Seminar on Stockpile Management and Weapons Destruction organized by the Organization of American States (OAS) in Guatemala City in January to share their expertise on stockpile management and weapons and ammunition destruction within the framework of its assistance package for Caribbean States.
UNLIREC experts had the opportunity to share with the representatives of Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic and officials of the OAS, the lessons-learned and best practices accumulated in recent years by its Public Security Programme on stockpile management and weapons and ammunition destruction, an area of work in which the OAS and UNLIRE are technical partners.
During the Seminar, UNLIREC stressed the role that an efficient system - in line with international security standards in the stockpile of weapons - plays in preventing that weapons that are legally purchased by the State end up in illicit trafficking. At the same time, UNLIREC’s experts noted that such initiatives are among the most effective in preventing that seized, surplus or damaged firearms reach the hands of criminals. In order to carry out a weapons destruction event that is approved and recognized by the international community, it is necessary to follow all security standards. During the Seminar, obsolete weapons and ammunition were destroyed by the OAS and the Ministry of Defence of Guatemala, which received wide coverage by the Guatemalan media.
This Seminar forms part of a series of assistance initiatives that the Department of Public Security of the OAS has been developing in recent years in Central America as part of a project implemented under the Merida Plan. The project, in addition to weapons and ammunition destruction and stockpile management, will also provide legal assistance to Central American States, an area in which UNLIREC and the OAS have also collaborated. To date, Guatemala and Nicaragua have been the focus of this assistance, and were used as examples of initiatives that could be promoted in other States as part of a new project.
Next May, UNLIREC will organize its first Inter-Institutional Training Course on Combating Illicit Firearms Trafficking (IITC) for the Guatemalan law enforcement community directly involved in combating the illicit trafficking of firearms with the main objective of strengthening national capacities and promoting the effective implementation of international instruments in this field. This course will take place within the framework of the initiatives undertaken by the Guatemalan authorities to curb the illicit trafficking of firearms. |
