Human Security in the Western Balkan Region: the Impact of Transnational Terrorist and Criminal Organisations on the Peace-Building Process of the Region (HUMSEC)

December 21, 2006

Donor: Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission, Brussels
Duration of the project: May 2006 – April 2009

The main purpose of the project is to contribute to a better understanding of the link between transnational terrorist groups and criminal organizations in the Western Balkans and their role in the peace-building process in the region. The project helped to create a network of European researchers with the aim: to map and integrate European research capacities on the impact of transnational terrorist groups and criminal organizations on the peace-building process in the Western Balkan region; to develop a shared methodology of collecting facts and figures; to promote an interdisciplinary scientific dialog among experts in the field of terrorism, criminology, security studies, peace and conflict studies and human rights; to exchange experiences as well as different proposals for legal and institutional reforms and to coordinate and publicize the results of research in courses held with young professionals and representatives of the civil society and among policy-makers.The reports and special country reports prepared throughout the project are available to the scientific community, policy makers and wider public through a website specifically created for the project.

Partners on this project were: European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy – Forschungsverein, Austria; Tilburg University, Netherlands; Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Germany; Belgrade Centre of Human Rights; Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law Germany; Human Rights Centre of the University of Prishtina; International Criminal Law Center of the University of Toulouse, France; Danish Institute for International Studies; University of Montenegro – Law Faculty Human Rights Centre – Podgorica; Human Rights Centre of the University of Sarajevo; Information Centre for Question of the Fight against Terrorism of the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic; Law Faculty of the University of Shkodra “Luigj Gurakuqi”, Albania; Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais e Segurança, Portugal; University of Ljubljana-Faculty of Social Sciences, Slovenia; Research and Training Centre for Human Rights & Democratic Citizenship, Croatia; Cardiff University, United Kingdom.

There were three Summer Academies during the project. The collaborators of the Centre took part in all of them. Mr Dejan Anastasijevic and Prof. Vojin Dimitrijevic also took part in the Academy as lecturers.

The Annual Conference “The Third Conference on Human Security, Terrorism and Organized Crime in the Western Balkans: Realities, Risks and Responses: The Impact of Transnational Terrorist and Criminal Organisations on the Peace-building Process of the Western Balkan region” was organized and hosted by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, took place in Belgrade, Serbia from 2 – 4 October 2008. . If You want to read…