The proliferation of illicit small arms, light weapons and ammunition is one of the principal factors contributing to high levels of violence and instability in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Almost half of all homicide victims are aged 15-29 and the use of firearms is particularly prevalent in the region, where two thirds (66 %) of homicides are committed with guns. Statistics compiled by Small Arms Survey for its publication Global Burden of Armed Violence, 2015 further reveal that the ten nations with the highest rates of SALW-related deaths between 2010 and 2015 were all American states, with each having a firearms-homicide rate of more than 20 per 100 000 of population.

The governments of Latin America and the Caribbean have rejected the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of arms through their support of several international instruments, including the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials (CIFTA), the United Nations Program of Action for Small Arms and Light Weapons, and the International Tracing Instrument. However, military and other security forces retain large stockpiles of SALW and ammunition that are often poorly secured or have loose accountability. Each year, security forces in the region seize thousands of illegal SALW and tons of ammunition. Some of the seized material has been traced to military stocks both from within and outside the region, as well-funded criminal enterprises, including drug trafficking organisations, transnational gangs, and international arms traffickers have overwhelmed national interdiction capabilities.

Not only the proliferation of small arms, but also the availability of firearms to the general population has been shown to augment the risk of gun violence. The Global Status Report on Violence, 2014, of the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals through cross-sectional studies across participating countries that gun availability is, in fact, a risk factor for homicide. The report also notes that firearms in general are highly prevalent in the Americas, and the predominant weapon used in violent encounters. Another of the report's findings is that ease of access to firearms and other weapons and excessive alcohol use are also strongly associated with multiple types of violence.

Another issue to consider is that gun availability affects men and women differently. The widespread availability of guns contributes to the number of threats using this type of weapon, as well as to the fatality rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the homes of battered women. According to the United Nations Department of Disarmament Affairs, a disproportionate percentage of the owners and users of small arms are men, both in conflict and non-conflict situations. Most incidents involving male-on-female reveal the use of guns as intimidation or deadly weapon. When a gun was used, IPV victims were less likely to have visible injuries. At the same time, they were more likely to be frightened. Guns are mostly used to threaten the partner (69,1 %), and when using this kind of weapon, offenders are less likely to punch or kick a victim, for example.

The use of any type of weapon is associated with a wide range of violent behaviour with outcomes for the victims that go beyond physical injuries. Threats and intimidation generate psychological effects and traumas and many of the victims avoid reporting this violence to the authorities because they fear retaliation. Professionals, such as health care providers, social workers and public security officers require training to be able to respond to violent situations involving the use of SALW.

Community engagement and the creation of a community support network may better assist victims of gun related crimes and help preventing violent behaviours that may trigger especially to intentional homicides. An active community contributes to building up trust, transparency, communication and commitment in its efforts.

Since 2009, the Department of Public Security (DPS) of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) (‘OAS-DPS’) has supported the efforts of OAS Member States to control the flow of illegal SALW and ammunition and to manage institutional stockpiles through the Program of Assistance for Control of Arms and Munitions (PACAM). PACAM has implemented projects in cooperation with most of the 34 active OAS Member States, under the provisions of CIFTA. These activities have resulted in the marking of over 290 000 firearms and the destruction of another 60 000 weapons and over 1 700 tons of munitions throughout the region.

Although meaningful results have been attained in SALW marking, physical security and management of stockpiles, significant asymmetries in national capabilities persist, particularly among the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. Systematic implementation of stockpile management protocols remains incomplete in nearly all of the countries of the region, and demand for technical assistance, advice and cooperation has increased because of the successful execution of earlier PACAM activities and the increased confidence developed among national authorities in the role of the OAS in this field.

During execution of previous PACAM projects, as well as during recent CIFTA meetings, several OAS Member States have requested technical assistance in the areas in which the proposed project is intended to focus. Countries requesting support for improving physical security and stockpile management capabilities include Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Dominica. Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama have asked for support for the destruction of excess, obsolete or confiscated SALW and ammunition. Meanwhile, the demand of training and assistance with marking and tracing of SALW has been high, with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay and Paraguay requesting help.

This project will also include a prevention component comprised of cross-sector and community-focused collaborative interventions aimed at reducing risk factors related to violence having the previously mentioned professionals and the community as direct beneficiaries and offenders and its victims as indirect targets.

The prevention component will be carried out within one selected community of the three selected countries. The interventions may need to be adapted in order to meet the needs of specific populations, methods of community engagement, and the distinct setting of challenges and opportunities for conducting collaborative gun violence prevention initiatives in diverse communities. While the countries of focus for these efforts have not been specifically identified, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica are likely candidates for project support because of their very high levels of violent crime and associated firearms use.

Through this three-year project, the DPS aims to strengthen the capacity of the governments of OAS Member States to control and reduce the illicit proliferation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and conventional munitions in the region, and to strengthen the capacity of selected communities to prevent armed violence. Technical assistance and cooperation with Member States that support the overall aim of the project will be based upon the following objectives to:

• Strengthen physical security and management systems for national military and other institutional stockpiles through improved site security measures and inventory control;

• Reinforce national capabilities for destruction of seized, excess or unsafe SALW and ammunition;

• Enhance national SALW marking and tracing capacity and foment regional cooperation on tracing confiscated weapons and ammunition;

• Improve SALW transfer mechanisms through national legislation, border controls, and regional coordination; and

• Promote socially responsible behaviours in selected communities, targeting groups that are severely affected by armed violence, including the use of turn-in campaigns or other strategies designed to reduce local incidence of violent crimes.

The OAS plays a pivotal role in the regional framework to prevent the illicit proliferation of small arms, light weapons, ammunition and explosives in Latin American and the Caribbean. In 1997, the region became the first in the world to adopt a regional instrument for the control of these weapons with the signing of the CIFTA. By providing the Technical Secretariat for the CIFTA, the OAS holds a unique position in coordination of efforts across the Western Hemisphere that seek to combat the uncontrolled spread of illicit small arms, light weapons and munitions as a necessary step for enhancing citizen security and reducing armed violence. In this role, the OAS-DPS has implemented projects and programs to support OAS Member States in fulfilling their obligations to ensure the security of national firearms stockpiles, to implement legislative measures to establish the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms as criminal offenses under domestic law, to require firearms marking, and to exchange information with other CIFTA signatories with respect to tracing information and patterns of illicit trafficking. Since 2007, OAS projects supported by international donors have provided training, technical assistance and equipment to 29 countries in the region, resulting in the marking of nearly 300 000 firearms, destruction of another 65 000 excess or confiscated guns, and elimination of over 1 700 tons of excess, expired or unsafe munitions. No other regional or subregional organisation covering all of the Americas has the political influence, technical expertise or geographical reach to be able to support and assist all 35 American states.

(Cuba remains the only inactive OAS Member State, and its future status is subject to a process of dialogue that could be initiated at the request of the Government of Cuba, and in accordance with the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS).

In addition, the OAS-DPS has been entrusted by the OAS Member States the responsibility to draft a Hemispheric Plan of Action to prevent and reduce homicides. One of the plan's objectives is to reduce the availability of and access to arms. Two of DPS's instruments to implement the plan are the Inter-American Program and Network for the Prevention of Violence and Crime. The prevention component of this project will be implemented following the Program and Network guidelines, youth leadership, consideration of the three levels of prevention, based on scientific evidence, inter-sectoral coordination, social participation through community empowerment, encouragement of international cooperation, promotion of a culture of peace, and gender and human rights perspectives.

As a general practice, OAS-DPS coordinates its activities with other agencies and organisations receiving funds from both the same and different donor governments and international bodies. In the case of organisations receiving support from the Union for work related to the activities proposed under this project, the Global Firearms Program of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is directly relevant to the project. The focal point for this coordination will be both the UNODC regional office in Mexico and country offices in which specific project activities will be conducted. Given the ongoing work of UNODC in this area, project activities will be aligned with the pillars of the Global Firearms Program.

With respect to legislative and policy development, OAS-DPS will continue to work in this area through the CIFTA by way of its annual Consultative Committee meetings and through special working groups that have developed and continue to refine model legislation for the States Parties. Objective 4 of this proposal is to improve SALW transfer mechanisms through national legislation, border controls, and regional coordination, with emphasis on legal mechanisms. Activities will include a regional workshop to develop mechanisms for legal cross-border transfers and their tracking, development of a virtual coordination network for information-sharing on legal transfers and illicit trafficking, and legal assistance to specific states. The legislative tools already developed by UNODC will be important in guiding the work of the OAS project in this area, UNODC advice and experiences will be sought out during the development process of these regional frameworks, including invitations to UNODC representatives to participate in workshops and to comment during the work on a virtual coordination network.

On preventive and security measures, OAS-DPS will contact UNODC to arrange discussions to share experiences on firearms marking and tracing projects and experiences. Since this has been an area of emphasis in previous OAS projects, an interchange of experiences early in the project, in the context of CIFTA Consultative Committee meetings could be facilitated through attendance of UNODC staff at these meetings.

Data collection and analysis, another pillar of the Global Firearms Program, will offer an important opportunity for OAS to share information gathered during project activities with UNODC. In that regard, OAS-DPS intends to contact the main UNODC office in Vienna, as well as its liaison office in New York and its regional office in Mexico, to coordinate ways that we can share information from project activities that will assist in their analysis of global trafficking patterns and trends.

The general aim of this project is to strengthen the capacity of the governments of OAS Member States to control and reduce the illicit proliferation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and conventional munitions throughout Latin American and the Caribbean and to reduce the impact of SALW on vulnerable populations and communities within the region. Building on previous activities carried out by the OAS-DPS through its Program of Assistance for Control of Arms and Munitions (PACAM), project activities will focus on securing institutional stockpiles of small arms, light weapons and ammunition through physical security and stockpile management measures, preventing illicit trafficking of weapons and ammunition across international borders within the region, and identifying and tracing small arms, light weapons and ammunition that are seized by government authorities to determine their sources. During execution of the project, the OAS will train national agencies responsible for physical security and stockpile management and provide equipment and software for national inventory control.

Stockpile management efforts will also include assistance to governments in destroying confiscated, excess and unsafe SALW and munitions. The OAS will reinforce a previous project that provided equipment and training for marking and tracing SALW by assisting Member States that have not received support in this area, as well as to those Member States that were assisted and have subsequently requested additional training and maintenance support for marking equipment. Leveraging its coordination role as the Secretariat for the CIFTA, the OAS will provide advice and technical assistance to Member States in drafting legislation that promotes measure to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in SALW and ammunition, in accordance with CIFTA provisions. In addition, a pilot prevention program will target selected communities in two or three of the countries that are most seriously impacted by armed violence related to the proliferation of SALW. The intended timeframe for project execution is 36 months.

Objective 1: Strengthen physical security and management (PSSM) systems for national military and other institutional stockpiles through improved site security measures and inventory control.

Supporting activities:

• Activity 1.1: Assess PSSM situation of national institutions in at least nine OAS Member States.

• Activity 1.2: Develop SALW and ammunition inventory control software and make software and training available to key all OAS Member States through CIFTA.

• Activity 1.3: Provide training to key national authorities on PSSM best practices, including inventory control and SALW identification and classification during workshops in conjunction with CIFTA events.

Expected results:

• Nine national-level assessments of physical security and stockpile management capabilities and needs completed.

• Inventory control software developed and distributed to a minimum of nine OAS Member States.

• Two workshops on PSSM best practices conducted with a total of 60 national personnel from 15 OAS Member States trained.

Objective 2: Reinforce national capabilities for destruction of seized, excess or unsafe SALW and ammunition.

Supporting activities:

• Activity 2.1: Provide training and technical assistance for, as well as monitoring of, the destruction of confiscated, excess and unwanted SALW and ammunition to at least eight OAS Member States.

• Activity 2.2: Coordinate with the Government of Spain to provide advanced explosive ordnance disposal training to 60 technicians from OAS Member States at the Spanish Army Engineer Academy in Madrid.

Expected results:

• At least 200 national staff from eight OAS Member States trained on safe destruction of SALW, ammunition and explosives

• Destruction of 300 tons of munitions and 30 000 SALW.

• At least 60 national technicians trained in explosive ordnance disposal to level 3 of CEN Workshop standards.

Objective 3: Enhance national SALW marking and tracing capacity and foment regional cooperation on tracing confiscated weapons and ammunition.

Supporting activities:

• Activity 3.1: Conduct at least one maintenance and training assistance visit to 18 OAS Member States that previously received SALW marking equipment and training through the OAS.

• Activity 3.2: Provide a limited number of additional SALW marking equipment to OAS Member States requesting machines and computer equipment to enhance their marking and recordkeeping capabilities.

• Activity 3.3: Introduce SALW marking equipment and provide training to three OAS Member States that did not previously receive assistance.

• Activity 3.4: Consolidate data from SALW seized by national authorities and destroyed during Activity 2.1 in order to trace source and transit countries and analyse illicit trafficking patterns.

Expected results:

• Two hundred national technicians from 18 OAS Member States trained in the use of SALW marking and recordkeeping equipment.

• Damaged marking machines repaired or new machines provided to OAS Member States to ensure that each of the 25 states that participated in the original OAS SALW marking project have at least one operational machine.

• At least one SALW marking machine and recordkeeping software and equipment are provided to three OAS Member States that did not participate in the original OAS SALW marking project.

• SALW identification data for approximately 30 000 seized SALW from OAS Member State inventories is provided to Conflict Armament Research for use and analysis by the I-trace initiative, as well as to international law enforcement agencies for individual firearms tracing through INTERPOL's iARMS and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms e-Trace systems.

Objective 4: Improve SALW transfer mechanisms through national legislation, border controls, and regional coordination.

Supporting activities:

• Activity 4.1: Conduct a regional workshop in the context of CIFTA to develop a mechanism for cross-border and regional communications and communication to notify neighbouring countries about and facilitate tracking of legal arms transfers.

• Activity 4.2: Establish a virtual coordination network for information-sharing about illicit arms trafficking and manufacturing activities.

• Activity 4.3: Provide legal assistance on national SALW control legislation to OAS Member States requesting support.

Expected results:

• A standardized format for reporting tracking of legal arms transfers within the Americas is coordinated and approved by the CIFTA States Parties.

• A virtual platform for pre-transfer notification of arms transfers (modelled on PEN-online system for precursor chemicals) is developed and operational.

• Five OAS Member States provided with legal assistance for development of national SALW, ammunition, and/or explosives control.

Objective 5: Promote socially responsible behaviours in selected communities, targeting groups that are severely affected by armed violence, and using cross-sector collaborative interventions designed to reduce the risk and recidivism of violent crimes in one selected community of each of the three participating countries.

Supporting activities:

• Activity 5.1: Coordinate and conduct diagnostic assessments of armed violence patterns and issues in selected communities of three OAS Member States (one per country) to identify populations suffering a high index of crime using SALW where prevention efforts are likely to reduce the levels of violence, and the existing State and civil society services available to assist crime and violence victims.

• Activity 5.2: Provide training courses to health care providers, social workers, justice and public security officials to better their capacities to assist victims of inter-partner violence and other forms of armed violence and provide training courses on non-violent conflict resolution techniques to community leaders, in particular, and male leaders to prevent recidivism among offenders.

• Activity 5.3: Conduct community capacity building workshops on violence prevention, directed at augmenting protective factors among populations identified as most vulnerable to violence and gun related violence in the three selected communities.

• Activity 5.4: Evaluate the effectiveness of prevention interventions of the project.

Expected results:

• Three local assessments conducted [Assessment including the local patterns of gun violence, existing vulnerable populations, number of inter partner violence that use firearms as mechanism of violence and crime, local assistance and protection services provided to victims of violence and armed violence and a list of recommendations for decision makers within the three selected communities conducted].

• Three community networks strengthened to provide factors to confront risk of gun violence.

• Three hundred state and civil society care providers and officials trained to improve capabilities for prevention and mitigation of armed violence.

• Selected interventions targeting groups most vulnerable to gun violence within one community of each three selected beneficiary country implemented and evaluated.