Criminal justice responses to terrorism focus of OSCE seminar in Montenegro

Strengthening rule of law-compliant criminal justice responses to terrorism was the aim of a two-day seminar for over 30 Montenegrin practitioners from relevant government agencies, which concluded on 19 September 2018 in Budva.

Organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Action against Terrorism Unit in close co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, the seminar focused on good practices detailed in the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s Rabat Memorandum, listing effective terrorism prevention and prosecution measures, while emphasizing respect for human rights and other applicable international law.

Experts in the criminal justice field presented the legal parameters and practices developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, as well as the work of the private financial sector in this area.

Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro Maryse Daviet, said: “We are pleased to be able to help bring together the Montenegrin law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges, as well as representatives of the corrections authorities and ministries, to engage with the issue of terrorism across the justice sector, so that cases can move in an efficient, timely and law abiding way.”

Among other topics, experts and participants discussed effective co-ordination mechanisms among domestic government agencies and the importance of protecting sensitive information in terrorism cases. The seminar also highlighted the need to ensure the protection of all parties involved in terrorism cases, as well as for the development of policies for the effective incarceration and reintegration of convicted terrorists.

The event in Budva was the ninth in a series, which is mainly funded through extra-budgetary contributions by the United States of America. Seminars previously took place in Nicosia (2014), Skopje, Sofia, Tashkent (2015), Sarajevo (2016), Pristina, Astana (2017), and Issyk-Kul/Kyrgyzstan (2018).