Negotiating Disarmament : Accessible analysis and support

What issues are involved in developing accessible analysis and support?

The project uses the HD Centre's extensive network of contacts and opportunities within its various operational activities to promote weapons control and violence reduction in peace processes. In doing, it produces strategic and targeted materials, including briefing papers, opinion pieces, and country reviews for mediators, facilitators, government officials, UN personnel, armed groups and NGOs directly involved in peace processes.  

What activities is the HD Centre undertaking to address this issue? 

The HD Centre has engaged in the following activities, with the support of the Governments of Canada, Norway and Switzerland:

Developing a database of peace agreements concluded in the last 60 years, to help analyse trends in weapons control clauses in agreements
In early 2007, the HD Centre developed a database of more than 300 peace agreements concluded in the last 60 years, to help analyse trends in weapons control clauses in agreements. Various categories such as region, weapons, violence related provisions and types of accords, were used to assess trends in the agreements. A briefing paper produced out of this analysis will be released in 2008.

Producing country-specific reviews to analyse how weapons control and violence issues were negotiated and addressed through the course of the peace negotiations
The HD Centre conducted analysis, for a variety of audiences, on how weapons control and violence issues were negotiated in specific peace processes. In November and December 2007, reviews in El Salvador, Burundi and Sudan respectively were undertaken to analyse how security concerns were negotiated and addressed in the peace process. A series of interviews were undertaken in each country, as well as with people in other locations involved in the peace talks. Individual reports on these three processes will be released in 2008. 

Sharing of opinions
In March 2008, the first of two edited compilations of opinion pieces was finalised.  Viewpoints - Reflections on Guns, Fighters, and Armed Violence in Peace Processes brings together first-hand accounts and careful observations from individuals with diverse connections to peace processes, offering space for their views on how weapons control, violence reduction, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration fare in peace negotiations and processes. It is now available in English and soon in Spanish. 

Generating analysis: researching and producing strategic and targeted material on thematic issues

• Reducing and regulating guns in the hands of civilians is a contentious issue, which was addressed in the briefing paper Civilians, guns and peacebuilding: Approaches, norms and possibilities. The briefing paper, available in English, French and Spanish, includes case studies on Cambodia, El Salvador, Haiti, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.
• 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 a framework 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.