HF II Regional - Enhancing penitentiary capacities in addressing radicalisation in prisons

As part of the second phase of the European Union and the Council of Europe co-funded cooperation framework “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey” (Horizontal Facility II), the Council of Europe implemented a Regional Action on “Enhancing penitentiaries capacities in addressing radicalization in prisons in Western Balkans”. The Action was implemented in close cooperation with the Ministries of Justice and the P/CVE coordination bodies of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Republic of Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia…. The Action included a wide spectrum of other national stakeholders and civil society organizations active in the penitentiary field and countering violent extremism and radicalisation in prisons.

The main aim of the Action was to enhance regional security by improving the inter-institutional exchange of knowledge and good practices in the region in respect of radicalization in prisons, with a view on providing penitentiary system staff with necessary standards, tools and instruments needed to respond appropriately. Another important goal was to empower in-county multi-agency coordination to counter radicalization in prison and to provide adequate post-penal support to released violent extremist offenders.

The Action also assisted the national authorities to ensure that the application of the tools and mechanisms on national level with regards to addressing radicalisation in prisons further strengthens in light of the identified good practices in the region.

The Action’s duration was set at 36 months and it iwas completed by 31 December 2022, with an overall budget of 2,000,000.000 Euros.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

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Back Practices related to rehabilitation of Violent Extremist Prisoners (VEPs) exchanged between prison staff from the Western Balkans region

Practices related to rehabilitation of Violent Extremist Prisoners (VEPs) exchanged between prison staff from the Western Balkans region

The second regional Working Group on rehabilitation and disengagement from violence of VEPs in the Western Balkans (WB) region took place via an on-line platform on 09-10 June 2020. Mr Gianluca Esposito, Head of the Action against Crime Department of the Council of Europe, welcomed the participants from the six WB Beneficiaries and emphasized the importance of adhering to highest professional and human rights standards when rehabilitating VEPs and the necessity of ensuring holistic approach in the process of disengagement from violence.

During the meeting participants presented the rehabilitation programmes under development and the ones currently in use in the WB region per the Beneficiary, alongside with the challenges prison staff face in applying these approaches in practice. As a result, positive aspects of the various rehabilitation practices were identified, which will serve to pave the way towards identifying a more unified rehabilitation and intervention framework suitable for the whole Western Balkans region.

All participants agreed that, albeit differences among interventions in use, the challenges remain the same and focus on motivating VEPs to take part in rehabilitation, building trustful communication, adjusting the interventions to best suit the individual needs of the offenders and engaging external stakeholders in support to the disengagement process.

This activity was implemented within the scope of the Regional Action “Enhancing penitentiary capacities in addressing radicalisation in prisons in the Western Balkans” that is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and implemented by the Council of Europe.

9-10 June 2020