The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs opened a workshop today in Rio de Janeiro to help governments trace illicit small arms and light weapons.

The workshop, which is jointly run with INTERPOL, the international police organization, is to focus on helping government officials familiarize themselves with the International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, which is known as the International Tracing Instrument.

Officials will also learn about INTERPOL’s Electronic Weapons Tracing System.

In April this year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented his first-ever report on small arms to the Security Council.

In that document, Mr. Ban observed that most current conflicts are fought using mainly small arms and light weapons and that they are widely used in inter-State conflicts as well as in civil wars, terrorism, organized crime and gang warfare.

The workshop is being organized by the UN’s Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Conventional Arms Branch and its Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Government of Brazil.