21 June 2012 - Bilateral and multilateral partners in Bissau today held a technical meeting aimed to exchange views on their support to the Security Sector Reform (SSR) process in Guinea-Bissau.

"This is not a new initiative. These are regular meetings on the different areas of the SSR including defense, internal security and justice that UNIOGBIS and partners of the UN Country Team promote to exchanges views amongst the international partners on their activities in support of SSR", UNIOGBIS SSR chief Antero Lopes said.

In light of recent political-military events in the country and its impact on partners support, Lopes stated that based on its mandate UNIOGBIS is "dealing with population, civil society groups and technocrats to implement projects that will grant the communities better access to security, better access to justice, in close consultation with our internal partners namely within the UN system". "We are proceeding with the initiatives that we have not been told to freeze, those are initiatives that directly impact on the communities, on the population by giving them better access to security and justice throughout the country", he added.

Following the coup d'état of 12 April 2012, the majority of bilateral and multilateral partners suspended their support go the SSR process.

Security Sector Reform is said to be crucial for peace and long term stability in Guinea-Bissau. In its resolution 2048, the Security Council requests the Secretary-General to ensure "maximum
coordination and complementarity of international efforts, with a view to developing a comprehensive integrated strategy with concrete measures aimed at implementing security sector reform, political and economic reforms, combating drug-trafficking and fighting impunity".

Today's meeting brought together representatives of Brazil, China, France, Portugal and Spain as well as the African Union (AU), European Union (EU) and the UN.