Division 3.2.2 Technical approach

Requests for assistance with physical security, stockpile management and destruction of SALW or ammunition will require an initial assessment to be conducted by a member of the OAS-DPS program management team with support from the PACAM technical team. Based on these assessments, the management team will propose country action plans to national authorities, which will be executed with support from the PACAM technical team according to the most urgent priorities and available funds. Ammunition destruction activities will take into account the age, condition and obsolescence of the material, prioritizing elimination of material that pose the greatest threat to public safety and security through unplanned explosions or diversion. Small arms and light weapons will be earmarked for destruction using analytical criteria that include functionality, lethality, and risk of diversion. Destruction of seized or confiscated weapons will be limited to those that have been released by judicial authorities and are no longer required to be presented as evidence in court proceedings. Each country action plan that is developed will consider the following guidelines:

• International Ammunition Technical Guidelines;

• OAS Firearms Standards: Marking and Recordkeeping; and

• United Nations Department of Disarmament Affairs Destruction Handbook: Small Arms, Light Weapons, Ammunition and Explosives.

In order to enhance regional coordination on SALW national legislation, transfer mechanisms and border controls, the OAS will conduct regional workshops in conjunction with the annual meetings of the CIFTA Consultative Committee. Support for these workshops will also serve to increase CIFTA meeting participation by appropriate national authorities and provide fora for the identification of common problems and solutions. The OAS-DPS management team will contribute to development of CIFTA meeting agendas, as well as coordinate and execute the workshops. The workshops will focus on specific topics in the area of regional cooperation and coordination in order to identify training and technical assistance needs that neighbouring countries and subregions have in common. A particular focus of the regional workshops will be the development of a regional notification system for legal arms transfers that is consistent with the provisions of CIFTA and which also considers guidelines for transparency that are found in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which some of the OAS Member States and CIFTA signatories have signed and ratified.

Subsequent training courses will be coordinated by the OAS-DPS management team and presented by the PACAM technical team with participation by Member States at the national and subregional levels in order to improve communication among national authorities with similar responsibilities within particular geographic areas. One course will be directed at training to customs and port authorities for recording inventories of seized weapons and ammunition to promote tracing and establishment of trafficking patterns as a means to reduce arms smuggling and promote improved reporting of seizures. The PACAM team will provide software and computer equipment to support these activities after national personnel have been trained. In conjunction with this training, the PACAM team will present information, as well as printed guides for distribution, covering SALW and ammunition identification, classification and safety to prevent accidents.

The prevention component of the project will focus on one community in each of three selected countries. The OAS-DPS will coordinate community assessments, starting with the Strategic Diagnostic System (Sistema de Diagnóstico Estratégico) – SIDIEs methodology, which will assess the current risks of gun violence at the community level, including most at-risk groups, and also the strengths and weaknesses of the selected community to protect itself. The services provided by the State and civil society to assist and protect victims of armed violence will be mapped and a list of policy recommendations will be provided to local authorities. The assessment will be gender sensitive, and it will also include a human rights approach.

The second step in the process will be to build the capacities of local health care providers, social workers, Justice and public security officials, so they can better assist and protect violence and crime victims and work for the prevention of recidivism among offenders. This activity will emphasize the work with victims and offenders of inter partner violence. Psychological and psychosocial support with the creation or strengthening of mutual help groups will be conducted, and labour reintegration to victims considered. Victims and their families will be encouraged to file reports of violent events and threats while Justice and public security officials will be trained to better respond to this kind violence. Health care providers and justice sector professionals will be encouraged to integrate psychological assistance to offenders, as a risk prevention strategy and in order to avoid recidivism.

The activities will also involve the community to address its weaknesses, to identify and strengthen existing protection networks, and to work together with the existing official prevention networks. These activities will include training courses on non-violent conflict resolution techniques to community leaders, SALW risk reduction campaigns if necessary. Some of the interventions may target groups identified as most vulnerable at the beginning of the process, such as at risk youth (e.g. Multisystemic Therapy), or women (entrepreneurship). All community capacity building activities will be evaluated with the most appropriate instruments such as questionnaires or focus groups. In additions, specific instruments to evaluate the selected interventions will be designed once the interventions have been selected.