Ten representatives from civil society organizations, Local Safety Councils, Ministry of Interior and Albanian State Police were on a visit to Zagreb, Croatia, on 30 and 31 January 2024, to exchange best practices and strategies when designing and implementing local and national awareness raising initiatives on firearms. The visit was organized by the OSCE Presence as part of its project "Assisting the national authorities of the of the Republic of Albania to decrease the risk of weapon proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW)", funded by the European Union, Germany and France.
The Albanian delegation had the opportunity to learn from Croatia's extensive experience and sustainable strategies on raising awareness on the risks and misuse of firearms. They met with representatives of the Croatian General Police Directorate, Centre for Forensic Examinations, Informative Centre for Prevention, and Velika Gorica Police Station. They also visited the Red Cross Zagreb and its centre for volunteers and youth, where they were introduced to various youth-focused awareness raising and prevention initiatives on the risks of firearms.
"The exchange visit was a useful experience for us to see how awareness raising campaigns on the firearms are implemented in the context of Croatia. After this visit, in co-operation with the OSCE Presence's project, we will develop a plan for the implementation of outreach activities in our communities," said Ervin Muço, General Director of Elbasan Municipality's Protection and Social Inclusion Directorate.
The recently developed Awareness Raising and Communication Strategy on the Misuse of Small Arms and Light Weapons highlighted that the Local Safety Councils and civil society organizations are well-implanted partners, especially among hard-to-reach target groups. The selected Local Safety Councils and civil society organizations that were part of the visit to Croatia have played an important role in the conceptualisation process of the strategy. They have also expressed their willingness to co-operate with the Ministry of Interior and the Albanian State Police on local and national awareness-raising outreach activities in Albania to be implemented as part of OSCE's SALW project.
"This is assessed to be an exceptional platform to bring together representatives of Local Safety Councils, civil society, Interior Ministry and State Police when implementing such activities. We believe that this is a first milestone in strengthening co-operation amongst these important stakeholders in the process of enhancing the government awareness raising efforts in the benefit of Albanian citizens", said Xhenis Ballço, the project's national officer at the OSCE Presence in Albania.
The organization of the visit was supported by the General Police Directorate of Croatia's Interior Ministry and the Red Cross in Zagreb.
