The third regional meeting dedicated to the topic of capacity building and training of prison and probation staff in the Western Balkans on addressing violent extremism and radicalisation took place in Tirana, Albania on 17-18 November 2021.
The participants were welcomed by Ms Lejdi Dervishi, Director of the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE Center) in Albania, who shared their practice and experience in awareness raising and training of wide spectrum of professionals, namely from national institutions to local level communities. She emphasized the need to have inclusive approach to the issue of violent extremism and radicalisation, which enables coordination between and synergy of all actors in the society.
The main conclusions from the discussion articulated the need to have methodological, science- and reality-based approach to capacity building of professionals. All participants agreed that there is a need for harmonisation of the training programs in the region, however these must take into account needs, resources and specificities of the prison system in each Beneficiary. It is pivotal to ensure in-house continuous and sustainable training modalities and to think strategically of training levels in line with trainees’ professional role, background and tasks. The contribution from the discussions presents a road map for the development of a joint framework curricula for basic and advanced training of prison and probation professionals that will be defined with a follow-up paper.
The event was facilitated by two international consultant and was implemented under the regional action “Enhancing Penitentiary Capacities in Addressing Radicalisation in Prisons in the Western Balkans” co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and implemented by the Council of Europe.
European Prison Rules
CPDL Highlights
