UNODC seminar on monitoring arms flows and the Sustainable Development Goals: Latin American meeting on data collection
From 29 to 30 November 2017, UNODC's Global Firearms Programme in cooperation with the Government of Panama and funding from the European Union (EU) organised a regional meeting for Member States from Latin America with the scope of enhancing national and international data collection and analysis efforts in order to monitor illicit firearms trafficking flows. The meeting also addressed the development of a basis for the monitoring and achievement of Sustainable Development Goal target 16.4, which aims at reducing arms flows and combating all forms of organized crime. Thirty-six representatives from national arms control agencies in charge of firearms, registries and data collection, as well as investigators, prosecutors and police from fourteen countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) attended the meeting. The strengthening of data collection methods forms an integral part of the mandate of UNODC and its Global Firearms Programme. This meeting for Latin American Member States was the second of a series of meetings organized by UNODC as part of its EU-funded project to support global data collection and analysis on firearms trafficking and promote information exchange and cooperation among trafficking routes. The first meeting took place in Addis Ababa in September 2017 and involved Member States from the African region. The regional meeting for Latin American Member States was entirely funded from the European Union (DG Home).
The project aims at supporting data collection and analysis on illicit firearms trafficking with a view to monitoring and mapping trafficking flows, fostering effective international cooperation in tracing and information sharing, and combating illicit trafficking and related crimes. It also seeks to establish a regular data collection mechanism on firearms seizures and trafficking based on an internationally agreed methodology and best practices, including the 2015 UNODC Firearms Study. The project also contributes to collecting data to monitor Target 16.4 of the SDGs.
Simonetta Grassi (Mrs.)
Senior Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer
Head of the Global Firearms Programme
Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking Branch / Implementation Support Section
Division for Treaty Affairs
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - UNODC
Vienna International Centre, Room E1245
P.O. Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: (+43-1) 26060-5484
Fax: (+43-1) 26060-7-5484
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459 5484
Email: simonetta.grassi@un.org
Website: www.unodc.org
Tweet: @UNODC_Firearms