Oct 29, 2017 | Uncategorized
From the 29th September to the 1st October, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament a and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), together with the Office of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme in Honduras, facilitated three workshops centred on the development of indicators that measure illegal trafficking and disarmament. These activities were undertaken in the framework of the joint programme entitled “Youth Volunteerism for Peacebuilding and Disarmament: Young People Measuring Community Security Through Participatory Indicators,” which has been taking place in Colombia, Honduras, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago since June 2017. The main objective of this initiative is to educate young volunteers on the 2030 Agenda and, specifically, on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, security and illegal trafficking, so that they can develop indicators to measure the impact of these phenomena at the community level.
About 80 young volunteers from Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba, leaders of youth organizations engaged in violence prevention and peacebuilding, participated in the three workshops for the development of indicators.
The workshops followed a participatory methodology to ensure that young people’s perspectives guided the debate and the definition of indicators. In this regard, the session began with a presentation of key concepts and definitions through local and national case studies that have been reported by the media in recent years. Among the salient issues for young people were stockpile management, the impact of stray bullets and the need to provide training for and to increase awareness among law enforcement officials, the media and civil society organizations.
The young volunteers developed indicators that concentrated on the information they wanted to measure from a local perspective, incorporating advice given on this process to ensure its validity, as well as a focus on gender and youth. The workshops were a space for creativity and exchange where indicators were proposed. The project’s volunteers would then validate these indicators in the upcoming work sessions.
These young Hondurans not only led these workshops, applying technical information and their previous training geared towards the development of indicators, but also provided a critical analysis of human security, armed violence and the illicit trafficking of firearms, phenomena that affect their age group and community. This is a direct contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
Oct 29, 2017 | Uncategorized
On 29 October, UNLIREC and the Government of Colombia held a working meeting on the modernization of Colombia´s legal framework on Less Lethal Weapons (LLW), an issue considered a priority by the current government. This activity brought together 20 representatives from nine state entities, including Ministries and other institutions, such as the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Commerce and Industry, Interior and Police, as well as the Colombian Military Industry, the Private Security Oversight Agency and Customs. These institutions form part of the Colombian LLW Working Group, responsible for the preliminary drafting of new legislation on LLWs.
Following UNLIREC´s previous LLW Workshop held in Bogota in April, national authorities requested legal and technical drafting assistance. Consequently, the objective of this additional session was to present to the working group the main comments from UNLIREC’s legal team on the Less Lethal Weapons Bill, which is currently under development. This activity is part of UNLIREC’s project entitled “Combat of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons and Ammunition in Central and South America” currently in execution thanks to financial support from Germany.
As a result, the representatives from the different sectors engaged in a debate on basic issues to be considered in the preliminary analysis of the bill, specifically those aspects regarding definitions, classification and possible control measures for LLW.
Oct 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
On the 25th and the 26th October, 20 young people participating in the Youth Volunteerism for Peacebuilding and Disarmament: Youth Measuring Community Security Through Participatory Indicators project conducted 1146 surveys to learn about the Trujillo citizens’ perception of insecurity. They, therefore, sought information on the topics proposed in the indicators under the main concepts of human security and armed violence.
The purpose of this exercise was to collect information from primary sources and to train young volunteers to use research tools, such as multiple-choice surveys. In addition, they learnt about the experiences and testimonies of the local population. For these surveys, four locations were chosen. On the first day, the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (UNT) and the Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego (UPAO) were selected. Both schools have a significant representative young population originating from the targeted communes of the Joint United Nations Human Security Programme where the project has been implemented in Peru. These districts are La Esperanza, Florencia de Mora and El Porvenir. On the second day, the volunteers went to the Mercado Modelo in La Esperanza and the historic centre of Trujillo. There, the volunteers got a clearer picture of the perspectives in the population in relation to the indicators they had developed over the course of the project.
The most common profiles of the respondents, were young people between the ages of 18 and 29, out of which a 53% were students and women. The main findings of the surveys revealed that at least 491 persons felt fairly unsafe while 331 felt very unsafe in their community. In addition, a third of the respondents had been victims of crime in the last 12 months, while the majority believed that a high probability existed of their becoming victims of extortion in the coming months. Another interesting revelation was that 218 people had been victims, or knew someone close to them who had been a victim, of stray bullets. According to 60% of people, a person who is engaged in economic activity in Trujillo is highly likely to become a victim of extortion.
In terms of gender-based violence, 94% of respondents said that it was very likely (587) or likely (491) that a woman would be sexually assaulted, citing the high rates of cases in public, at work and home. This was consistent with the creation of indicators related to this phenomenon, such as cyber-sexual harassment. On the other hand, when asked whether they knew the points of sale for illegal weapons, 236 respondents mentioned knowing about the existence of a point of sale in their area. The results were categorized according to age group, sex, district and occupation and were compared with the indicators proposed by the young volunteers.
The United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme have been hosting the regional project and this is one of the last activities of the project in Peru.
Oct 23, 2017 | Uncategorized
From 23 – 27 October, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) delivered its pilot Shooting Incident Reconstruction training in the Caribbean, in Trinidad and Tobago.
Six participants, among them Firearm Examiners and Crime Scene Investigators of the Trinidad and Tobago Forensic Science Centre (TTFSC) and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) participated in the 5-day Training.
The Caribbean region continues to face persistent levels of armed violence, illicit trafficking of firearms and ammunition, and impunity in firearm related crimes. The increase of organized crime-related cases, sophisticated criminal networks and lack of trust in state institutions have made the general population less likely to come forward when witnessing firearms-related cases, thereby increasing the caseloads and responsibilities of firearms and tool mark examiners, crime scene officers and investigators. Strengthening countries’ forensic ballistic investigative capabilities is essential to advancing the rule of law and to decrease impunity in firearms related cases.
The shooting incident reconstruction course was designed for firearms and tool mark examiners, crime scene and other law enforcement personnel who are responsible for investigating or overseeing the investigation of shooting incidents. The course will assist national authorities to connect all the pieces of forensic evidence necessary for the reconstruction of shooting crime scenes, including: documenting physical evidence at shooting crime scenes; determining the flight path of projectiles; examining firearm discharge residue to estimate distance from the shooter to the victim/ and or final target.
The Pilot Exercise is subject to review, modification and correction by national authorities and by UNLIREC where necessary. Topics covered included health and safety in the forensic process, collecting and preserving evidence, diagraming the shooting scene, computer uses in shooting reconstruction, identifying bullet holes, determining bullet trajectory, exterior ballistics and bullet impacts and ricochet and sequence of fire, amongst others.
Equipment used in the training, resource material and reference targets with sample bullet holes were handed over to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.
UNLIREC, as the regional organ of the UN Office for Disarmament, seeks to advance the cause of practical disarmament in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of its commitment to support Member States in their implementation of international disarmament and non-proliferation instruments, in particular, the 2001 UN Programme of Action on Small Arms.
Oct 13, 2017 | Uncategorized
On 13 October 2017, UNLIREC hosted a special workshop in Belize City focusing on the delivery of the Caribbean Control List construct to Belizean national authorities. In total, there were 18 workshop participants in attendance, with the majority attending as representatives of Belize’s Customs and Excise Department.
In addition to presenting the concept of the Caribbean Control List, sessions of the workshop were also devoted to learning about the identification of particular dual-use and WMD sensitive items that my present themselves at Belizean borders. The workshop provided a forum for discussion about how a national control list might practically be implemented from an operational perspective.
The workshop was able to take place thanks to generous funding provided by the Government of Canada as part of the strengthening implementation of UNSCR 1540 programme in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
Oct 7, 2017 | Uncategorized
From 10 – 13 July, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), together with ARQUEBUS Solutions Ltd, delivered Double Cast training to five participants from Guyana in Georgetown.
The participants, among them firearm examiners from the Guyana Police Force and Scientific Officers from the Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory, participated in the 4-day Training, based on INTERPOL’s Double Casting methodology.
Double casting increases the ability of national authorities to make connections between crime and crime scenes, nationally, regionally and internationally. The training sought to build capacity in the region to create microscopic replicas of projectiles and cartridge cases that can be peer reviewed and uploaded to a Ballistics Identification Network or shared across jurisdictions for comparison without disturbing the chain of custody of the original evidence.
Equipment used in the training as well as consumables to conduct further, practical double casting of projectiles were handed over to the Government of Guyana.
Double Cast Training is part of UNLIREC’s Caribbean Operational Forensic Ballistics Assistance Package, which is made possible thanks to the support of the US Department of State and the Government of Canada. This training was the sixth and final double cast training delivered by UNLIREC. Four similar activities were delivered to national authorities in Bahamas, Barbados, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago as well as a sub-regional workshop to participants from Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
UNLIREC, as the regional organ of the UN Office for Disarmament, seeks to advance the cause of practical disarmament in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of its commitment to support Member States in their implementation of international disarmament and non-proliferation instruments, in particular, the 2001 UN Programme of Action on Small Arms.
