Ensuring Sustainable Penitentiary Actions in managing rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ESPA-VEP)

On 1 April 2022 the Council of Europe initiated the implementation of a 33-month project entitled “Ensuring Sustainable Penitentiary Actions in managing rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ESPA-VEP)”. It was implemented in close cooperation with the three Ministries of Justice (Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of BiH, and Republika Srpska), and their respective partners from the entity and state penitentiary institutions.

The overall objective of the project was to provide continued support to the BiH authorities in their efforts to further build the capacities of the prison system and strengthen practical skills of prison staff with respect to managing violent extremist prisoners (VEPs). This was also ensuring sustainability of the actions undertaken towards efficient reintegration of the VEPs back in the community.

The project had an overall budget of 770,000 EUR and was financed under the Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2020–2025. It was completed on 31 December 2024.

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Back BiH authorities discussed methodology for prison staff training on managing violent extremism

@ Council of Europe

The Working Group (WG) session on developing specific training programme for prison staff working with violent extremist prisoners (VEP), with focus on the legislative and institutional framework, took place from 26 to 27 January in Konjic.

The meeting brought together representatives from the Ministries of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Federation BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), as well as six penitentiary establishments from all parts of the country.

The participants agreed on the way forward with regards to designing the methodology to be used for the creation of standardised training curricula for the BiH prison officials managing VEPs. They concurred that the foundation lays in developing basic and advanced training programs and agreed on the importance of having quality and sustainable solutions by further investing in human potentials already trained and with expertise in the subject matter.

The WG meeting was organized within the project "Ensuring Sustainable Penitentiary Actions in managing rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ESPA-VEP)", which is funded under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022-2025.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 30 January 2023