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 Western Balkans prison practitioners exchanged experiences in rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners

@ Council of Europe

The third regional meeting on rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners (VEPs) and their disengagement from violence took place on 13-14 October 2021, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The focus of this meeting was to provide a forum to prison authorities and practitioners from all six Horizontal Facility Beneficiaries from the Western Balkans to continue the successful exchanges of good practices and lessons learned, with the aim to further enhance their capacities to implement rehabilitation programmes and intervention plans for VEPs.

The piloting of the VEP-specific programmes throughout the region was in the heart of the discussions, with reflections on the first results, practical challenges and the way forward towards national roll-out and sustainability. All the participants agreed on the importance of ensuring proper pre-conditions for the pilot phase that aims to test the applicability of the programme within the respective prison context, as well as on the need for more training on process skills for the multi-disciplinary prison teams. The importance of ensuring holistic approach to disengagement was emphasized through the presentations of the experiences of BiH and Albania in establishing local multi-agency co-operation in support to VEPs rehabilitation and reintegration.

A total of 12 prison practitioners participated at the meeting, thus contributing to the lively discussions facilitated by two Council of Europe consultants, who will prepare a discussion paper based on the received input and the exchanges between the participants.

This activity was organised 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.

Western Balkans 15 October 2021