Division Description

Working with the national authorities in the six States of the Sahel region, namely, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria, UNREC will conduct an assessment of all existing PSSM-related legislation, as well as administrative and standard operating procedures, making full use of already available assessments and liaising with ongoing regional and bilateral projects supporting legislative reforms in SALW, to avoid duplication and overlap.

UNREC legal experts will provide support to the relevant line ministries, legislators and senior law enforcement and defence officials in the review of national legislation and administrative procedures, to ensure that international legal obligations and international technical standards, especially the ISACS and IATG, are incorporated into the national regulatory framework.

Support in this area should be provided upon request of the countries and focus primarily on the approximation to international standards on PSSM, taking into account other ongoing initiatives providing assistance or advice on wider arms control or security sector issues.

UNREC will organise national workshops with senior representatives of national defence, law enforcement and other civilian authorities concerned with SALW security. Participants will jointly discuss the findings and recommendations of the assessment and agree on the different measures to take, and identify recommendations that can be fulfilled through legislative changes or administrative decrees.

During the national consultations, priority storage facilities to serve as pilot sites will be identified. These could include one in each of the capitals, one in a major provincial hub, one in a rural area and/or one in a border area (land border, port or airport), as well as major transportation routes for government-owned SALW and ammunition. When possible and appropriate, the choice of priority storage facilities should take into account available information about patterns of diversion and trafficking, so as to prioritise stockpiles which have been identified as contributing to the region's instability.

UNREC will produce one final assessment report per country setting out the recommendations on legislation and procedures required to meet international requirements. These reports will include the feedback from national authorities and other stakeholders from the six target countries.