Article 1
1. With a view to supporting the Member States of the League of Arab States (LAS) with their national implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (the ‘UN PoA’) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI), phase III of the project commenced by Decisions (CFSP) 2018/1789 and (CFSP) 2021/1726 shall enable LAS Member States to sustainably strengthen the effectiveness of their national small arms control and counter-proliferation frameworks, in line with the practices and standards set by the UN PoA, the ITI, and the Global Framework for Ammunition (GFA) according to their priorities and need. 2. In particular, the project will pursue the following objectives in order to combat the threat of small arms and light weapons (SALW) proliferation in the LAS region: — strengthening the capacities of customs and other border agencies to detect, interdict, and report on matters of illicit firearms trafficking in the LAS region; — strengthening the capacities of law enforcement agencies to effectively investigate and cooperate on matters of illicit firearm proliferation and trafficking in the LAS region; and — strengthening the capacities of security and military agencies to design and implement safe and secure stockpile management systems for SALW and ammunition in the LAS region. 3. In order to achieve the objectives referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, the Union shall, by means of this Decision, support actions in, inter alia, the following priority areas: — Area 1: international SALW transfer control, including risk assessment and preventing the diversion of SALW to unauthorised recipients. — Area 2: identification and disruption of sources of illicit small arms, including capacity building for law enforcing agencies, control of land, air and maritime borders, marking and record keeping and tracing of SALW, techniques for arms investigations and tracing of arms and use of ballistic information and identification or disruption of smuggling routes and methods. — Area 3: other small arms measures, including stockpile management and security. — Area 4: provision of information relevant to SALW and enhanced SALW control, such as evaluation of laws and regulations in LAS Member States and advice on possible revisions as well as translation of relevant research and studies into Arabic. 4. A detailed description of the project referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 is set out in the Annex to this Decision.