Jun 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
From 26 June to 1 July 2016, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), in collaboration with the government of Trinidad and Tobago, carried out a three-day training course, a technical assessment of national capabilities and infrastructures, and a seminar for the institutional clients of firearms forensic ballistics in Port of Spain. These clients included officials from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, members of the Judiciary, prosecutors, among others.
The three-day training course on operational forensic ballistics enabled 12 participants, including firearms examiners, armourers and technicians to increase their knowledge on topics, such as firearms and ammunition identification and examination, comparison microscopy, range of fire determination. The course included a simulation of the presentation of expert testimony of forensic ballistic evidence in a court of law and provided the opportunity for participants to exchange best practices and challenges faced in the field.
The national assessment, carried out in cooperation with the Trinidad and Tobago Forensic Science Centre took into consideration the occupational health and safety of the firearms examiners (e.g. lead contamination), adequate protective equipment, firearms safety protocols, evidence management, as well as the continuing education plans for firearm examiners and other law enforcement personnel. The main recommendations of the assessment will be integrated in the two year capacity-building work plan for forensic ballistics.
The seminar raised the awareness of 24 institutional clients of firearms forensic ballistics on the strengths and shortcomings of forensic ballistics in support of building court cases, as well as in generating intelligence to identify sources and routes used for illicit arms trafficking. In addition, UNLIREC staff provided a review of best practices in forensic ballistics analysis and investigative techniques.
This initiative is part of the UNLIREC Caribbean Operational Forensic Ballistics Assistance Package, which is made possible thanks to the support of the US Department of State.
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.
Jun 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), within the framework of the United Nations Joint Programme entitled “Strengthening Human Security and Community Resilience by Fostering the Promotion of Peaceful Coexistence in Peru”, participated in the verification and monitoring process of more than 1,200 firearms. This process was carried out in collaboration with the National Superintendence for the Control of Security Services, Arms, Ammunition and Explosives for Civil Use (SUCAMEC) and concluded, on 6 July, with a public event at the police station in the centre of Trujillo, a northern Peruvian city suffering from elevated levels of armed violence.
This is the second firearms destruction carried out in Trujillo with the technical support of the United Nations, which coincided with the UN International Day of Firearms Destruction being celebrated later that week (9 July). Regional, local, and district authorities attended the ceremony to observe the symbolic cutting of the firearms confiscated by the Peruvian National Police rendering them inoperable until final destruction the next day at a steel company in Chimbote, Peru. The confiscated firearms included revolvers, pistols, shotguns, carbines, homemade weapons and rifles.
UNLIREC participated in the entire destruction process, from the planning stage, training, registration, monitoring, and verification of weapons to the final act of destruction.
Firearms destruction is one of the most effective means of improving citizen security, as it allows States to rid of surplus, obsolete, confiscated weapons or those surrendered by civilians, thus reducing the possibilities of their proliferation and misuse.
May 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
From 27 to 28 of April, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), held an expert meeting on competency and proficiency testing for firearms and toolmark examiners in the context of its Operational Forensic Ballistics Assistance Package in Lima, Peru. This assistance package aims to enhance the capabilities of eight Caribbean countries to implement operational forensic ballistic (OFB) investigation strategies amidst broader efforts to combat illicit small arms trafficking and impunity in cases of armed violence.
The gathering brought together specialists from the American Association of Firearms and Toolmark Examiners (AFTE), the European Network of Forensic Scientists (ENFSI), CARICOM IMPACS, representatives of graduate programmes in forensic sciences from the University of the West Indies and the University of Santo Domingo with government representatives from Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago and the United States Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). UNLIREC proposals for hands-on competency testing in the Caribbean were discussed in the context of existing state-centred and private testing frameworks.
Beginning in the second semester of 2016, UNLIREC will be piloting Forensic Ballistics Collaborative Exercises to evaluate government examiners abilities to undertake firearms, ammunition and trigger pull examination in line with established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). It is hoped such exercises will complement written and practical tests administered online or by correspondence and build Caribbean laboratories capacity to evaluate their own staff. Competency and/or proficiency testing combined with the use of written SOPs are the building blocks of forensic ballistics quality managements systems.
This expert meeting was made possible thanks to the support of the US Department of State and the Government of Canada´s Anti-Crime Capacity Building Programme.
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.
For more information on UNLIREC visit (www.unlirec.org). Please direct all questions or inquiries to Amanda Cowl, Political Affairs Officer (cowl@unlirec.org).
May 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
The United Nation Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) donated a series of bullet-traps to private security companies in Peru as part of its project entitled: Strengthening Oversight and Building Capacities for Small Arms Control and Nonproliferation in the Private Security Sector. The official handover took place on 26 May 2016 on the grounds of at the National Regulatory Entity for Security Service, Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives for Civilian Use (SUCAMEC).
The handover ceremony of bullet traps was attended by the companies that provide security services and that have participated in the project since it began in June 2015. The project’s main goal is to promote international standards and best practices in the control of arms and ammunition of private security companies, and to contribute to preventing mismanagement, theft or firearms accidents. The standards promoted are the UN International Small ArmsControl Standards (ISACS) and the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines (IATGs).
The bullet traps are devices that all depots must have as a preventive security measure, according to the international standards on small arms and ammunition control. Whenever firearms are received or handed over at the depots, the staff must ensure that the arms have been made safe, in other words, without ammunition inside them. This is known as dry firingand must be performed inside a bullet-trap, which consists of a metallic cylinder containing sand. The barrel of the arm is placed inside the cylinder to make the dry fire. In the case of an involuntary shot, the bullet is absorbed by the cylinder, which slows the bullet down and prevents ricocheting towards the shooter, thus avoiding fatal consequences due to an involuntary shot.
As part of this assistance, the private security companies received hazardous material warning stickers to be placed in the weapons and ammunition depots. These stickers were designed according to the UN Recommendation on the Transport of Dangerous Goods.
This project, which provides technical assistance to both SUCAMEC as a control and regulatory agency in charge of private security services in Peru, is implemented by UNLIREC in collaboration with the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) with the economic support of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Through this assistance package, UNLIREC supports Latin American and Caribbean States in strengthening public security and the UN Programme of Action on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects (UN 2001 PoA).
For more information on UNLIREC visit (www.unlirec.org). Please direct all questions or inquiries to Amanda Cowl, Political Affairs Officer (cowl@unlirec.org).
May 23, 2016 | Uncategorized
The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) continues assisting States in the region in the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). On 23 May, UNLIREC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica inaugurated the roundtable on the process towards creating a national control authority for ATT implementation.
This activity targeted 30 national authorities in charge of conventional arms transfer controls from seven different institutions. The main purpose of the two-day roundtable was to provide States with guidelines on the creation of a national control authority responsible for arms transfers in compliance with the provisions found in the Arms Trade Treaty, and provide examples of international standards and models from other States at both the regional and global levels. Moreover, the activity created a space for structured discussion on the essential aspects to be taken into consideration when creating the national authority. Aspects such as composition, functions, functionality and inter-institutional cooperation.
This roundtable and all instruction materials are available to ATT State Parties in Latin America and the Caribbean thanks to the financial support from the Federal Government of Germany. To date, 21 countries in this region have ratified the ATT, which came into force last 24 December 2014: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominica, The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. It is expected that in the coming months other States in the region will join the group of ratifying States.
For more information on UNLIREC visit (www.unlirec.org). Please direct all questions or inquiries to Amanda Cowl, Political Affairs Officer (cowl@unlirec.org).
May 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
From 5-6 December, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) with the support of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and CARICOM’s Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security carried out a Caribbean Regional Encounter on Forensic Ballistics in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
The purpose of the Regional Encounter was to highlight the importance of quality management systems in laboratories, as well as to advance and support the Regional Integrated Ballistics Information Network (RIBIN), and develop formal relationships at the policy/technical levels among Caribbean States.
The event formed part of UNLIREC’s region-wide assistance package on operational forensic ballistics, designed to complement other bilateral, regional and international initiatives’. This package, funded by the governments of Canada and the United States, contemplates collaboration with designated national authorities to undertake forensic ballistics capabilities assessments; provide basic and advanced training for firearms and toolmark examiners; raise awareness among institutional clients of forensic ballistics; provide basic laboratory material; and support the incorporation of written standard operating procedures into existing systems.
Participants at the Regional encounter included Permanent Secretaries, Directors of Civilian Forensic Laboratories, Heads of Police Crime Laboratories, Senior Firearms Examiners and other policy personnel from several states including: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad and Tobago. Other Institutional Participants included representatives from the ATF, INTERPOL, CARICOM IMPACS and UNLIREC.
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.
