Disarmament in Review
From 4 to 15 November 2024, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, in cooperation with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) of Germany, organized a basic training course for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Mechanism for Investigations of Alleged Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (UNSGM) in Berlin, Germany.
The two-week basic course for the UNSGM was the 2nd such course held in 2024, after the basic course held in Johannesburg, South Africa in July. The course was aimed at providing experts nominated by UN Member States to the UNSGM roster with a better understanding of their role in carrying out investigations of alleged use of biological weapons should they be deployed as part of a UNSGM mission. This course is the first phase in a three-phase training approach for qualified experts on the roster. The second phase includes advanced skill courses, where experts will be provided with more in-depth instructions on certain skills in a shorter, one-week courses. The third stage is a Capstone field exercise, an exercise based on an advanced scenario.
A group of 16 experts on the UNSGM roster from 15 countries attended the course in Berlin. Representatives from UNODA provided briefings on the UNSGM, such as its mandate and history, the roles and responsibilities of experts nominated to the roster, the UNSGM Guidelines and Procedures, coordination and support with other UN offices and departments, and report writing. A former staff member of the United Nations Department of Safety and Security provided guidance on operational safety and security, cultural awareness, mission planning, information gathering, communication strategy and field communication. Representatives from the RKI provided technical instruction on topics including personal protective equipment, sample packaging and transport, and decontamination. Instruction on sampling was provided by French Armed Forces Medical Research Institute (IRBA) and the French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA); instruction on decontamination was provided by the Military Laboratorial Unit for Biological and Chemical Defense of the Portuguese army. The course also benefitted from presentations by external partners on mis- and dis-information, and investigative interviewing, among others.
In addition to the lectures and presentations, the course included several practical components for participants and concluded with a 1.5-day scenario-based exercise. During the field exercise, experts were split into two groups, and each group was asked to plan their mission, conduct sampling and interviews, and write a preliminary report of their findings. The exercise allowed experts to put into practice the knowledge acquired during the previous days of the course.
In addition to the support provided by the RKI and the Government of Germany, financial support for the workshop was generously provided by the European Union and the Government of Canada.
For more information, please contact the UNODA team in support of the UNSGM at UNSGM@un.org.
