Port of Spain, 8 April 2022 – UNODC’s Firearms Trafficking Section organised a workshop to strengthen the capacities of Trinidad and Tobago authorities to collect and analysis firearms-related data for the purposes of monitoring illicit arm flows and contribute to both measuring the achievement of Target 16.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and promoting an evidence-based action against firearms trafficking.
The workshop brought together 15 experts from Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, Ministry of Defence, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Attorney General’s Office and the Strategic Services Agency. After a presentation of the international efforts to monitor illicit arms flows, the workshop focused on UNODC’s tool to collect and analyse firearms-related data, namely the Illicit Arms Flows Questionnaire (IAFQ), which is distributed on an annual basis among all the States around the globe to generate data on seized, found and surrendered firearms and ammunition, the criminal context of the seizures and other relevant issues. The IAFQ promotes a standardisation of data collection efforts at global level, and also facilitates the identification of trafficking routes, trends and linkages with other crimes, which eventually contributes to building an evidence basis that helps to design more effective policy and operational responses at local, national and international levels.
The workshop combined two lectures delivered by UNODC experts on SDG Target 16.4 and the IAFQ, with lively group discussions and a practical exercise, which allowed participants to increase their knowledge on the topic, exchange their own experiences and cooperate in the. One of the aims in this kind of training is precisely to encourage inter-institutional cooperation and information sharing in the fight against illicit firearms trafficking.
The workshop was supported by UNODC’s project funded by Germany: “Supporting the implementation of the criminal justice component of the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap”.
