UN-LiREC promotes interagency coordination in Central America on combating illicit firearms trafficking

In order to facilitate coordination among the different agencies of the United Nations system in the provision of assistance to Central American States, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLiREC) - as the CASA (Coordinating Action on Small Arms Mechanism) focal point in the region - invited other United Nations agencies to the first-of-its-kind coordination meeting in Panama City last July.

The meeting facilitated the exchange of information among all participating UN agencies, including UN-LiREC, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Central American Programme on Small Arms and Light Weapons Control (CASAC) on the different requests for assistance made by Central American States in areas, such as stockpile management and firearms destruction, legal assistance and law enforcement personal training, amongst others.

Following an evaluation, which took into account the technical and financial capacity of each UN participating entity, a planning session took place with the aim of dileneating the responsibilities of each organization in the upcoming months. In this sense, UN agencies agreed on the importance of coordinating activities to avoid duplicating efforts and to further contribute to the work already undertaken.

The second coordination meeting will take place within the framework of the “Central American commitment: a space to build a safe region” event that will take place in Panama City from 25-29 October 2010. The event will be organized by the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA), UN-LiREC and UNDP with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

The Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA) mechanism was established in 1998 as a United Nations tool for the formulation and implementation of a multidisciplinary and coherent approach to the problem of the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons. During this same year, the Secretary-General designated the Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) as the focal point for coordinating all action on SALW within the United Nations system. UN-LiREC serves as UNODA’s focal point for CASA in the Latin America and Caribbean region.