A community-policing approach to prevention of violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism in focus at OSCE training course in Skopje

Developing and strengthening the engagement between the police and the community in order to prevent and counter violent extremisms and radicalisation that lead to terrorism was the aim of an OSCE training course held from 3 to 5 November 2021 in Skopje.

The two-and-a-half-day course was organized by the OSCE's Transnational Threats Department and Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Skopje.

It brought together 20 police officers and community members representing organized groups and religious communities, as well as individuals and staff from local governmental agencies such as social services.

Community policing officers together with community representatives of North Macedonia learned about human rights-based, whole-of-society approaches to preventing terrorism and countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (P/CVERLT) and discussed common challenges and good practices.

The course was designed based on the OSCE guidebook Preventing Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism that Lead to Terrorism: A Community Policing Approach. It was also based on pilot courses run in 2018 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and in 2019 in Tirana, Albania by ODIHR and the OSCE Transnational Threats Department.