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Round Table on gender-responsive prison management with regards to radicalisation and violent extremism

On 17-18 March 2022, the Council of Europe, in close cooperation with the three Ministries of Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and their respective partners from entity and state levels, organised a Round Table (RT) on strengthening the capacities in the execution of criminal sanctions with aim to ensure a gender-responsive prison management.

The RT was attended by the Assistant Ministers of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federation BiH and Republika Srpska for  Execution of Criminal Sanctions, the BiH Assistant Minister of Security for Countering Terrorism, representatives of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, directors of the BiH State Prison and penitentiaries Zenica, East Sarajevo and Tuzla, as well as representatives of the BiH Islamic Community, Social Welfare Canters, Mental Health Protection Centers and members of the multidisciplinary prison teams.

The participants benefited immensely from presentations and discussions on the best practices regarding efficient gender-based prison management, the role of women in violent and extremist groups, gender perspectives and addressing gender stereotypes in prevention of violent extremism. They also improved their understanding on the role of the Islamic Community in BiH in the process of resocialisation and prevention of radicalisation, as well as experiences of the social services and mental health protection centers in providing of psychological support and assistance to women returnees from the conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. The discussions emphasised the importance of gender perspectives as a key precondition in development of efficient strategic policy framework related to prevention of prison radicalisation, fight against terrorism and violent extremism, and reintegration of former prisoners upon their release.

The meeting was organised under the project "Support to the penitentiary system towards sustainable rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina", funded by the Council of Europe.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 17-18 March 2022
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project brief

On 01 May 2021 the Council of Europe initiated the implementation of an 8-months project entitled “Support to penitentiary system towards sustainable rehabilitation of violent extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The project is implemented in close cooperation with the three Ministries of Justice (Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of BiH, and Republika Srpska), and their respective partners from the entity and state penitentiary institutions.

The overall purpose of the project is to provide continued support to the authorities in BiH in their efforts to further build the capacities of the prison system and strengthen their skills with respect to managing violent extremist prisoners (VEPs). It will also ensure sustainability of the actions undertaken towards efficient reintegration of VEPs back in the community.

The previous Council of Europe projects[1] set the foundations and preconditions for structured case management of VEPs and inter-agency cooperation. The future key actions, supported under this proposal, will be focused on enhancement of the prison staff skills related to the multi-disciplinary approach in ensuring VEPs rehabilitation and preparation for release. This project will also aim to establish virtual education and training proficiency center, which will bring together the existing expertise and resources in order to sustain knowledge and skills attained in management of VEPs.

The main expected results of the project are:

  1. Enhancement of the unified application of the VEP-specific tools throughout the penitentiary systems in BiH, and
  2. Establishment of the BiH Penitentiary virtual Center of Excellence for preventing and countering violent extremism in prisons in a form of collaboration platform 

The project has an overall budget of 200,000 EUR and is financed under the Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018–2021. 

 

[1] Voluntary contribution "Structured sentence management for violent and extremist prisoners", funded by UK Embassy and USAID (2018-2021) and “Supporting reintegration of violent and extremist prisoners in Bosnia and Herzegovina” , and voluntary contribution of the Government of the United Kingdom through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2017-2018)