prijava
SARAJEVO, October 22 (FENA) - A ministerial conference "Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Prisons in Southwest Europe - Challenges and Vision of the Future" was held in Jahorina today, organized by the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The aim of the conference was to initiate regional dialogue, strengthen cooperation and exchange good practices in the field of prevention of radicalization and violent extremism in the prison environment, taking into account specific sociological, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
The event brought together justice ministers from the Western Balkans region, as well as justice ministers and representatives of Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia, to exchange experiences and consultations in the fight against radicalization and violent extremism in prisons, as well as to promote cooperation and exchange of good practices between penitentiary services throughout the region.
After the conference, the BiH Minister of Justice Josip Grubeša told reporters that they worked on this project with the international community, the Council of Europe, the European Union in BiH, and with countries from Southeast Europe, where everyone recognized the common problem of violent extremism and radicalism within the prison system.
We wanted, he added, to share the experiences and solutions of the European Union countries that participated in the conference, with countries in transition, which are on their way to the European Union, "to see how we will fight this problem as best as possible and how we will better prepare people who come out of prison for their future ife in the community.
"We have concluded that we must intensively educate the staff working in prisons, we must constantly conduct trainings, and in addition to all that, we must work on coordination at the political level. We must be aware of the fact that many people who are in prisons have more than one citizenship and use this advantage to transfer their radical ideas from one country to another, or from one prison to another," said Minister Grubeša.
He noted that the Ministry of Justice of BiH has a sector that deals specifically with this topic, and this project, which began mid-last year, is being implemented in all prison systems in BiH, in the entity prisons, and the Institute for Execution of Criminal Sanctions of BiH.
Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Justice Mariya Pavlova said they are fighting extremism in Bulgaria primarily through the harmonization of the legislative system with the European one.
She added that they have also adopted a multitude of strategies, action plans to fight terrorism and extremism.
"In the prisons themselves, we have developed a methodology and trained prison officers for individual work with persons who have been subjected to extremism and radicalization," Pavlova explained.
Bulgaria is also working internationally, participating in the development of methodologies, rules and principles for early detection and prevention of radicalization.
(FENA) S. R.
