Creating an enabling environment for social re-use of confiscated assets through civil society participation in BiH

The project is implemented by Centar za promociju civilnog društva – CPCD within the framework of OSCE’s regional project “Strengthening the fight against transnational organized crime in South-Eastern Europe through improved regional co-operation in asset seizure, confiscation, management and re-use”.

The OSCE’s project aims at improving the effectiveness of the fight against transnational organized crime and corruption in the OSCE region by improving regional co-operation among five participating States (pS) in South-Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia). The project adopts a comprehensive approach by providing support to the entire cycle of asset recovery: (1) financial investigations, asset seizure and asset confiscation; (2) asset management; (3) asset re-use.

Building upon previous OSCE engagement in BiH and efforts to foster public discourse on the role of civil society in the fight against organized crime and promote policies of social re-use of confiscated assets among policy makers and civil society, the project “Creating an enabling environment for social re-use of confiscated assets through civil society participation in BiH”, implemented by CPCD, will tackle the following areas:

1. Awareness raising on social re-use in BiH among CSOs.

The aim is to raise awareness on social re-use of confiscated assets in BiH, as well as legal frameworks and practices currently applied in this field. As result, civil society organizations from BiH are well familiar with the concept of social re-use of confiscated assets and the benefits the practice can bring to communities.

• Capacity building of CSOs for social re-use.

By delivering targeted capacity-building trainings and workshop, the project aims at equipping CSOs with knowledge and skills necessary for active engagement in the social re-use practice (starting from topics such as where do I find information about confiscated assets, how to apply, to how to manage an asset that has been granted to your CSO for reuse). The activities will be tailored to the legal framework in FBiH, RS and Brčko District.

• Improving the dialogue and cooperation between government and non-government sector in the area of social re-use of confiscated assets

The project will support the co-operation between the Agencies for the Management of Confiscated Assets on entity levels and the CSOs, as well as other institutions (such as Ministry of Justice) that will be involved in different activities throughout the project.