The Western Balkan countries have agreed to abide by and implement a joint Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of SALW and their ammunition, to address challenges related to the arms proliferation and the different and deficient control frameworks in the Western Balkans.

The roadmap envisages a comprehensive approach to SALW control from updating and harmonization of the legal frameworks, improved regional cooperation and information exchange, enhanced interoperability of intelligence-led investigations, due public awareness on the dangers of weapons, gender mainstreaming in SALW control to strengthened physical security and safety of weapons storages.

Albania is fully committed to following the Roadmap as part of its strategic priorities on the fight against crime and consolidation of the rule of law, which is also part of the immediate five key priorities to be fulfilled by Albania in its EU accession process.

Over the years, the Parliament of Albania has approved several laws on SALW management and control, increasingly upgraded to comply with global practices and EU directives. Albania has also joined the main international agreements on firearms control, including: The Arms Trade Treaty, the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, the Firearms Protocol, and is actively engaged in regional initiatives to strengthen SALW control in the territory of the Republic of Albania and in the entire region.

In 2016, Albania also disposed of the surplus of weapons and ammunitions inherited from the past militarization policies. Measures to reduce corruption and organized crime were at the heart of the judicial reforms that were approved in 2016 as well as the establishment of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons in June 2017, the latter responsible for the development and monitoring of the implementation of a National Strategy and Action Plan on SALW.

On 6 February 2019, Albania approved its new National Strategy on Small Arms, Light Weapons and Explosives Control 2019-2024 and the related Action Plan 2019-2021. In term of compliance, the Strategy explicitly notes its close reference to the “Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and their ammunition in the Western Balkans, by 2024” and fully mirrors the roadmap and its performance indicators within the national objectives and the progress monitoring framework.  The Strategy and accompanying Action Plan recognize the gendered aspects of SALW control and contain specific measures to improve institutional and policy response to the misuse of firearms in domestic and intimate partner violence. The Strategy also foresees activities aimed at increasing the participation of women in SALW control and improving the capacities of competent institutions to mainstream gender in SALW control policies. 

As a matter of fact, from a gender perspective, the Albanian State Police has set a quota of 50% (women) in its recruitment policy and has launched a women-only recruitment campaign to increase larger participation of women and girls in police forces. This area needs to be consolidated and further strengthened in order to create a diversified and non-discriminatory police culture that encourages women and girls to participate in both law enforcement operations and decision-making processes meaningfully. While this is commendable, there is still much to achieve in practice. It is important to both concretely promote gender diversification in police forces and empower all the personnel equally to grow professionally and managerially within the structure.

In terms of objectives, the Strategy is very ambitious and challenging as Albania commits to make a considerable leap forward compared to the present state of affairs in the areas of legal framework development, review and harmonization with EU and international standards, in strengthening regional cooperation and the adoption of systems of higher regional interoperability, enhanced capacities of its public order, security and law enforcement staff and a serious upgrade and modernization of its physical and technological assets.

Entirely in line with the above national strategic framework, this Project addresses some of the immediate needs expressed by the Albanian counterparts related to enhancing the capacities of the Albanian State Police with regard to criminal investigations. Strengthening such capacities would, in turn, increase the rate of success in identifying perpetrators and improve the performance of the entire chain of law enforcement agencies. While the proposed solutions satisfy some immediate needs, their impact is deemed critical and essential for further mid to long-term improvements.