Between September 24 and 26, The Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights is organizing the first National Strategic Dialogue on Illicit Trade in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) – Sarajevo.
The three-days programme involves several representatives of the major national institutions engaged in the fight against illicit trade. In particular, it includes representatives from the Ministries of Justice and Security, from the State Investigation and Protection Agency, as well as several judges and prosecutors of the country. The initiative includes also a delegation of police officers engaged in the fight against corruption and organized crime and representatives of the Customs authority.
The NSD aims to:
- build knowledge and awareness about illicit trade as a multi-faceted threat requiring both whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approaches;
- Highlight the importance of incorporating a robust cross-sectoral perspective in efforts to combat illicit trade at the national and international levels;
- draw on the expertise, extensive experience and insights of national leaders, policy-makers and criminal justice officials in developing a more comprehensive understanding of national strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the fight against illicit trade; and
- strengthen cooperation and collaboration between national institutions and criminal justice officials in the investigation and prosecution of illicit trade-related crimes.
The opening ceremony was held this morning with the opening of Mr. Filippo Musca, Acting Director General of the Siracusa International Institute. Additional remarks were also given by Mr. Mijo Kresic, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Zeljko Bogut, Secretary of the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ms. Slavica Kresic, Assistant Director of the Indirect Taxation Authority (Law Enforcement Division), Ms. Zeljka Radovic, Member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ms. Mila Colic, Representative of the Centres for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.
The NSD is organised within the framework of the Institute’s two-year research and capacity-building project, ‘Strengthening the Fight Against Illicit Trade in South Eastern Europe’ (or SEE-IMPACT),which is supported by PMI IMPACT, a global grant initiative of Philip Morris International to support projects dedicated to fighting illicit trade and related crimes.
SEE-IMPACT involves twelve countries of the Balkans area (Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey). The NSD in Bosnia and Herzegovina is therefore only one of the national initiatives that the Institute will organize in the next months in other countries of the project.
This initiative follows the first National Strategic Dialogue in the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia (May-July 2019) and the first High-Level Regional Strategic Dialogue (RSD) on Illicit Trade in South Eastern Europe, which was held last December at the Institute’s headquarters in Siracusa. The RSD included institutional representatives from all the countries of the SEE-IMPACT project and several officials of international organizations. The event was attended, among others, by high representatives of Bosnian institutions.
