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As part of UNODC's continuous efforts to promote the effective implementation of the Firearms Protocol, the Global Firearms Programme (GFP) engages in encouraging gender-mainstreaming, promoting human rights, and supporting the participation and oversight of civil society as well as public awareness and visibility. The inclusion of these transversal issues in the main activities of the Programme is an essential element to help UNODC carry out its mandate in the best way possible.
Gender Mainstreaming
The GFP is developing a new programme-specific strategy to ensure gender mainstreaming throughout all its activities. This strategy is combined with an approach on women empowerment which looks at the roles of women as part of the criminal justice system and women and girls as part of the civil society.
Promotion of Human Rights
The GFP particularly promotes the respect of human rights in its projects notably through its workshops. When training national experts on the investigation and prosecution of firearms related offences and complex crimes for example, the GFP makes sure that participants take time to discuss the human rights' dimension of criminal investigation and prosecution of these crimes.
Civil society Participation and Oversight
UNODC provides capacity building to civil society organizations (CSOs) on the implementation of the Firearms Protocol and its impact on the national firearms control strategies. UNODC also strengthens CSOs capacities by ensuring their representation in capacity-building workshops and organizing special sessions for CSOs and parliamentarians. UNODC also works closely with the civil society in order to share information and knowledge.
Public Awareness and Visibility
Another important way of tackling the firearms trafficking problematic is creating awareness among the population and promoting voluntary surrenders of firearms when this is appropriate. In this regard during the course of the programme, the GFP developed several courses focused on the role of civil society participation, cooperation and oversight in firearms control. A course in this subject matter was held in cooperation, with the Brazilian NGO Viva Rio and is based on relevant modules of the comprehensive training curriculum.
In the framework of UNODC's initiative
Education for Justice (E4J), GFP also started to reach out to young pupils and students at the primary, secondary and university level and to raise awareness among them about the dangers and consequences of illicit firearms trafficking. UNODC's E4J initiative is created to support implementation of the Doha Declaration (A/Res/70/174), the outcome document of the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. It seeks to prevent crime and promote a culture of lawfulness through education activities designed for primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The initiative covers several topics of UNODC's mandate, including, among others, corruption, terrorism, criminal justice, firearms trafficking and cybercrime.
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