In March 2022, UNODC through its Global Firearms Programme (GFP) has initiated a series of training events in the Western Balkans with a focus on supporting prosecutors, law enforcement and customs officials with investigative powers to collect relevant and admissible electronic evidence to support firearms related investigations.
The training is based on UNODC’s Practical Guide on Collecting Electronic Evidence Across Borders, which has been translated and shared with criminal justice practitioners from the Western Balkans. The training course has a duration of three days, including working on practical exercises and a case study and drafting requests to Internet Service Providers (ISP) for obtaining electronic evidence from social networks, communication applications, electronic mail, etc.
On 29-31 March 2022, the UNODC GFP delivered the training course on electronic evidence in Skopje, North Macedonia, for twenty-five representatives from the Prosecutor’s Office, Customs and the Ministry of Interior responsible for the investigation and prosecution of firearms-related cases. UNODC GFP will continue supporting the practitioners on this topic by providing continuous advice on the formulation of the requests to ISPs and sharing updated information on the procedures to request electronic evidence from ISPs.
This activity is implemented with the financial support provided by Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, and Norway through the Western Balkans SALW Control Roadmap Trust Fund and supported by the European Union.
