Disarmament and demobilisation (DD) programmes are vital components of strategic peacebuilding. DD provisions govern the collection and disposal of arms and ammunition, and oversee the discharge of active-duty combatants from the state’s armed forces, rebel groups, or both. Using data from the Peace Accords Matrix database, this report compares the five most recent cases of DD implementation: Nepal (2006), Liberia (2003), Macedonia (2001), Indonesia-Aceh (2005) and South Sudan (2005).

Serious human rights violations are very often an integral part of displacement crises. Certain violations, such as mass killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and rape, often cause displacement, while others, such as the destruction of homes and property, can be aimed at undercutting the possibility to return home. Forcible displacement is frequently a deliberate strategy used by parties to a conflict and can in itself constitute a war crime or a crime against humanity.

Highlights

• UNDP supported the creation of a code of ethics to ensure that local authorities are more responsible towards citizens; the code has already been adopted by all 84 of FYR Macedonia’s municipal governments

•Over 250 civil servants received specialized training in administrative procedures, urban planning, communal activities and financial management.

Geneva/Zagreb, Croatia, 30 August 2012 (UNISDR/WMO) – The United Nations, European Commission and national authorities have launched a new project in the Western Balkans and Turkey that will reduce disaster risks and increase resilience to climate change.

The project launch is planned for 30 August in Zagreb, Croatia and it is aimed at high-level participants from disaster management authorities and national meteorological and hydrological services.

Summary: CHF 92,668 had been allocated originally from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 9th February 2012 to support the Macedonian Red Cross in delivering assistance to some 1,300 beneficiaries, and to replenish the disaster preparedness stocks. However, the National Society revised its operational plan in view of the evolving situation with a budget increase of CHF 71,079 (Update n°1, 24th February 2012). The revised budget for this operation amounted to a total of CHF 163,747, reaching 5,100 beneficiaries.

This report covers the period 01/01/2011 to 31/12/2011.

In brief Examples of the CBF impact (more in annex):

Red Cross society of China, Hennan Province

After only two years of implementation of Intensified Capacity Building (ICB) in Hennan Province, the branch has recorded impressive achievements:

• The new structure benefitted 7,000 people through sustainable services

• Grassroots Red Cross organisations have increased from 90 to 3,100

• The number of volunteers increased from 10,000 to 30,000, and staff from 100 to 8,000

With the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean, the first meeting of the Drin Core Group took place on 30 May 2012 in Ohrid, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This was the first meeting of the Core Group as the official joint body according to the memorandum of understanding signed on 25 November 2011 in Tirana by the five Drin River Riparians — Albania, Greece, Kosovo (United Nations administered region under security council resolution 1244), Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

A Report on the 2011 Peacebuilding Evaluation Evidence Summit

Introduction

Geneva and Skopje, 10 May 2012 – The Macedonian armed forces have destroyed a previously unknown stockpile of anti-personnel mines in compliance with the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or Ottawa Convention. At destruction events near Skopje yesterday and today, 1,248 PFM-1S anti-personnel mines were destroyed. These mines had been discovered in 2011 when the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia sought to determine which munitions under its possession would need to be destroyed in accordance with its international obligations.