As the European agenda entails, the issue of radicalisation and countering violent extremism has increasingly become a priority for every European Union (EU) Member State. The radicalisation of EU citizens, which may go as far as their departure to fight for terrorist and extreme violent organisations such as IS, poses a genuine security threat to the European Union, its member states and neighbouring countries. The project “The prevention of juvenile radicalisation: Promoting the use of alternatives to detention through judicial training” will address the issue of juvenile radicalisation in detention, within and outside the prison system, through the sharing of knowledge and good practices between judicial professionals and actors of several EU Member States (EUMS), especially those drawing on cross-sector collaboration.
The focus on the judiciary and judicial staff as the target group, as well as other legal practitioners and actors involved in the justice system, will ensure that the problem of juvenile radicalisation in detention is effectively addressed to stakeholders and decision-makers. This will be achieved through the formation and training of prison and detention centres’ staff, and through the training of judges, judicial professionals and policy-makers on the risks of radicalisation brought up by detention measures and on the positive outcomes of alternatives to detention, disengagement, deradicalisation and preventive approaches, which they will learn to develop, adapt and apply locally through this project.
In summary, this project aims at allowing judges, policymakers and legal practitioners to be trained and exchange views on effective intervention, management and sentencing practices regarding the prevention of radicalisation in detention, as well as the alternatives to detention and the development of effective de-radicalisation programmes for youngsters in EU Member States.
- The training of professionals and sharing of promising practices will allow European Union Member States to increase the efficiency of their policies in all three domains that this project will address.
- The creation of a manual and an e-learning training course summarising the responses available for criminal justice professionals will help them tackle the issue of radicalisation, in detention and through alternatives to detention.
- The conclusions of the project, in the form of a policy brief, will be circulated, presented and discussed at the EU institutions, as well as between EU member states, in order to inspire their policies and practices regarding the fight against radicalisation.
Coordinator:
- International Juvenile Justice Observatory (Brussels, Belgium)
Partners:
- Bremen Ministry of Justice (Germany)
- Protection Judiciaire de la Jeunesse, Ministry of Justice (France)
- Fundación Diagrama (Spain)
- The National Prison Administration - Ministry of Justice (Romania)
Associate partners:
- International Association of Youth Judges and Magistrates (Belgium)
- The Violence Prevention Network (Germany)
- Ombudsman Délégué général aux Droits de l’enfant – Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgium)
- 180 (The Netherlands)