Armed violence reduction : Accessible analysis and support

What issues are involved in developing accessible analysis and support?

Drawing on its extensive network of contacts and opportunities within its various operational activities, the HD Centre seeks to promote weapons control and violence reduction in peace processes.  Over the past few years, it has produced various materials, including briefing papers, opinion pieces, and country reviews, to better inform those directly involved in peace processes, including mediators, facilitators, government officials, UN personnel, armed groups and NGOs, on how to best address those issues.  

What activities has the HD Centre undertaken to address this issue? 

In support to this objective, the HD Centre developed the following activities:

• A database of peace agreements
  In early 2007, the HD Centre developed a database of over 300 peace agreements concluded in the last 60 years, to help analyse trends in the inclusion of weapons control clauses in agreements. Various categories such as regions, weapons, violence-related provisions and types of accords, were used to assess trends in the agreements. It is available for non-profit use upon request.
  
  
• Country-specific studies on security and armed violence in peace negotiations.
  The HD Centre produced three country studies which each bring to light how security issues were negotiated in the peace talks in El Salvador, Burundi and Sudan. Interviews were conducted with individuals closely involved in the peace talks, and research was carried out on how the various parties and mediators approached the multiple tasks of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of rebel and government forces; security sector reform; the control of vast quantities of weapons in circulation; and strategies for assisting those traumatised and disabled by armed violence.
  
  
• Sharing opinions
  In 2008, the HD Centre produced a series of two publications, Viewpoints - Reflections on Guns, Fighters, and Armed Violence in Peace Processes, compiling a total of 7 opinion pieces cataloguing a range of observations from individuals with diverse connections to security in peace processes. The two publications offered space for their views on how weapons control, violence reduction, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration fare in peace negotiations. The first volume published in March 2008 and the second volume published in November 2008 are available in English and Spanish.
• Producing strategic and targeted material on thematic issues
  Reducing and regulating guns in the hands of civilians is a contentious issue. It was addressed in the briefing paper Civilians, guns and peacebuilding: Approaches, norms and possibilities, available in English, French and Spanish. The briefing paperincludes case studies on Cambodia, El Salvador, Haiti, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.Another paper was published in 2009 on the challenge of bombs and mines in peace talks and agreements called Addressing explosive ordnance in peace processes.
  
  Policy briefs were also prepared for the Review Conference on the UN Programme of small arms control in mid-2006, to address the issues of assistance to survivors, guns in the hands of civilians in nations recovering from war, and the relationships between men and guns.
  
  
• Practical programming in support of the armed violence reduction initiative in Sulu, southern Philippines
  In the second half of 2007, the HD Centre undertook extensive consultations with a range of actors in Sulu, Philippines, to draft aframework of action to disband 'Civilian Volunteer Organizations'(local clan based militias) and tackle weapons availability and misuse in the region, in support of the peace process the HD Centre is engaged in. In 2009, the publication, Sihnag (Tausug for ‘glow'), drew together a variety of views, news and analysis of local security issues in Sulu.