Skopje, North Macedonia, 2 June 2021 - The UNODC Global Firearms Programme (GFP) hosted an online workshop for presentation of the Macedonian case law and harmonisation of the court practice regarding firearms cases. The primary audience of the workshop were prosecutors and defence attorneys coming from the entire country. Representatives from the basic and higher prosecution offices in Skopje, Bitola, Gostivar, and Stip covered all four main prosecutorial areas.
The primary goal of the event was to present the findings of the “Analysis of Judgments for the Criminal Offenses of Illicit Manufacturing, Possession and Trade in Firearms”, which was prepared by UNODC GFP. Besides the presentation, the event provided a forum for discussion and feedback on the possibilities to further supplement the Case Law collection and including the views of the public prosecutors and the defence attorneys in the country in the updated version of the document. The participants noted the fact that the Case Law collection of the selected final verdicts for firearms-related offences is the first of its kind in the country, which covers five years period: 2014-2019.
The participants recommended to further develop the document by supplementing it with cases that have been recently adjudicated with the goal to create a periodic mechanism for analysis and systematization, which will be updated every year. The participants endorsed the promotion of the document at the regional level in order to provide a comparative approach with similar studies from other countries in the region that would contribute to greater harmonization of the case law across the Western Balkans.
This activity is implemented with the financial support provided by Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Norway through the Western Balkans SALW Control Roadmap Trust Fund and supported by the European Union.
