The first Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the project “Ensuring Sustainable Penitentiary Actions in managing rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ESPA-VEP)” was held on 21 June in Banja Luka. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), the BiH Ministry of Security, and respective partners from entity and state penitentiaries.

The SC members reflected on the progress made under the previous projects "Structured sentence management for violent and extremist prisoners" and "Support to sustainable rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners (VEPs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina". They have highlighted the importance of the acceptance of the Strategic Guidelines for management of violent extremist prisoners (VEPs) in BiH and its Action Plan 2020–2025 by the three MoJs. The SC members commended the BiH and RS MoJs for incorporating the VEP-specific rehabilitation tools and programmes into the regulatory framework, thus making them a mandatory procedure for prison staff, and encouraged FBiH MoJ to initiate the integration of the project results into their respective framework.

The participants were presented with the scope of the on-going project, its objectives, main components, and they approved its Work Plan (May to September 2022). The SC members expressed satisfaction with the continuation of the cooperation with CoE in addressing prison radicalisation and rehabilitation of VEPs, emphasizing the importance of continued support the BiH authorities in their efforts to further build the capacities of the prison system and strengthen practical skills of prison staff.

The Steering Committee 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.