Disarmament in Review
Between 28 July and 6 August, the Office for Disarmament Affairs together with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPO) deployed a joint technical assessment mission to support the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH).
The mission focused on weapons and ammunition management activities that could support community violence reduction and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) initiatives in Haiti. This is part of a broader joint DPO-ODA project that seeks to generate resources and expertise for effective weapons and ammunition management in a changing DDR context.
The technical assessment mission identified linkages between weapons and ammunition management, and community violence reduction and DDR programming. It provided technical assistance to the National Commission on DDR in the development of a national strategy addressing gang violence.
This support was framed in view of MINUJUSTH’s ongoing transition planning and Security Council resolution 2476, which mandates the establishment of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (Bureau Intégré des Nations Unies en Haiti), also known as BINUH. It will include advisory capacity on weapons and ammunition management and community violence reduction.
The technical assessment mission offered recommendations to national authorities, MINUJUSTH and the forthcoming BINUH, as well as the international community, to stem unmonitored arms flows into and throughout the country, which involves an interrelated web of regional, state and non-state actors, reaching far beyond gangs.
It advised on the establishment of a comprehensive arms control framework that centres on solid national legislation that is in line with international arms control standards, regional instruments, and technical guidelines, including the Modular Small-arms-control Implementation Compendium (MOSAIC) and the International Ammunition Technical Guidelines (IATG).
It concluded that weapons and ammunition management and community violence reduction/DDR initiatives could be linked by incentivising voluntary disarmament of gangs and violence-affected communities through the provision of community violence reduction and sustainable development benefits within the recommended holistic regulatory framework.
