A total of 18 prison practitioners and representatives from the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) co-ordinating bodies from the Western Balkans region exchanged their experiences and views on identification of violent extremist offenders (VEOs), screening practices and application of risk and needs assessment tools in their prisons.
The two-day Working Group session resulted in exchange of best practices and lessons learnt. Based on this output a discussion paper on good approaches and identified weaknesses, clearly presenting the findings and recommendations on the ‘way forward’ and setting common methodology to be applied throughout the region, is to be developed as the next step.
The meeting took place in Podgorica on 15-16 October 2019. It was organised within the scope of the Regional Action “Enhancing penitentiary capacities in addressing radicalisation in prisons in Western Balkans”, under the umbrella of the Horizontal Facility Programme for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.