OSCE strengthens young people’s resilience to organized crime and corruption in South-Eastern Europe

Strengthening youth resilience to organized crime and corruption in South-Eastern Europe was the aim of a civil society organizations’ regional grants programme, carried out by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

Between July and October, 5,142 young people engaged in 72 in-person events, workshops, art performances and film festivals. Moreover, the programme reached 436,257 young people through social media channels, raising their awareness on the rule of law and integrity to create a peaceful and prosperous society.

Recognizing the civil society’s essential role in working with and for youth on the ground, during the programme, the OSCE and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime supported two civil society organizations in each of the involved participating States including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The organizations conducted grass-root extra-curricular educational and awareness-raising events engaging young people.

“Young people want to make sure that their opinions are heard, particularly when it comes to tackling organized crime and corruption. It is thus important to include them in efforts to address these challenges,” said one of the young participants from Montenegro, where the research by NGO Juventas showed that 40 per cent of the most listened songs in Montenegro glorify criminal activities and invited youth to critically assess the media they consume.

“I did not know about the risks and dangers of youth engagement in criminal and corrupt activities before. Through the creative approach of using photography, this initiative helped me learn to critically detect delinquent behaviour among young people and utilize effective ways to prevent it,” pointed out a young participant from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where NGO Sensus organized a youth camp creatively exploring photography to understand crime patterns and negative influences in the local communities and social media.

The programme was delivered in the framework of the OSCE-wide multi-year project Enhancing youth crime and drug use prevention through education on legality and awareness campaigns addressing threats of organized crime and corruption, funded by Italy. Other donors supporting this project are Andorra, Finland, Germany and Poland.