Through the present project, UNODC’s Global Firearms Programme assists the jurisdictions in the Western Balkans to strengthen their criminal justice response to firearms related criminality, through measurable results, including harmonized legal frameworks, and an increase in the number of cases of firearms trafficking and their links to other serious crimes investigated and individuals brought to justice, prosecuted and adjudicated for firearms trafficking offences.

UNODC’s GFP provides support in three of its mandate areas: (i) legislative assistance to apply the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto (UNTOC) and its Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition (Firearms Protocol), with a focus on the criminal and criminal procedural law provisions; (ii) support for enhancing the knowledge and skills of law enforcement and prosecutors to detect, investigate and prosecute firearms trafficking cases; (iii) support for collection and analysis of criminal justice data; and (iv) facilitation of international cooperation between criminal justice practitioners.

The project seeks to achieve three key results:

1. National firearms legislation and relevant criminal and procedural law provisions are fully harmonized with the UN Firearms Protocol and its parent Convention UNTOC and standardized across the Western Balkan countries

2. Increased capacity of Western Balkans jurisdictions to detect, investigate and prosecute firearms trafficking and its links to other serious crimes

3. The Western Balkans jurisdictions have evidence-based arms control policies and practices through systematic collection and analysis of criminal justice data across the Criminal Justice Sector

The project is contributing to Goals 1, 2 ,3 ,4 ,7 and key performance indicators 1, 3, 8, 9, 10 of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans.