On 26-30 November 2018, numerous entities and partners of the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (IAWG-DDR) gathered in Stockholm to review update guidance modules for Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS). The IDDRS has guided UN system entities on DDR activities since 2006. Among other things, the draft guidance is intended to respond to the new operational contexts in which DDR programmes are asked to be delivered, including those increasingly marked by the presence of violent extremism conducive to terrorism.
The workshop, hosted by the Swedish governmental agency the Folke Bernadotte Academy, was co-organized by the co-chairs of the IAWG-DDR, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the DDR Section of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), a member of the IAWG-DDR since March 2017, has been working closely with the UN Office of the Legal Adviser (OLA) in order to incorporate relevant guidance on the international counter-terrorism framework in a new draft legal module. The inter-agency format of the IAWG-DDR has enabled CTED to develop closer partnerships with UN entities working across a range of mandates and contexts and to better serve the UN system.