CEDEM presented the results of the project “Meeting modern security challenges: education and youth participation”

Podgorica, PR press service – Young people in Montenegro see organized crime and corruption, cyber terrorism and religious radicalism as the biggest security risks, and believe that security sector transparency can be improved by greater data availability, media involvement and dialogue with civil society.

This was announced at the presentation of the results of the project “Meeting modern security challenges: education and youth participation”, implemented by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), with the support of the Commission for Distribution of Gaming Revenue.

The project coordinator of CEDEM, Ognjen Markovic, said that the general goal of the project was to strengthen cooperation between the state and civil society in recognizing and solving key contemporary security problems that young people face.

The key values ​​in the project are direct communication of participants, eg schools and representatives of local governments and state institutions, with the idea of ​​defining recommendations for strengthening youth participation in formulating and implementing security policies, which is in line with the Law on Youth, Youth Strategy 2017-2021, as well as the Strategy for the Suppression of Violent Extremism 2016-2018, “said Markovic in the PR Center.

He said that the target groups of the project were students of law, political science, journalism, trainees and junior officials in the Ministry of Defense, the Army of Montenegro, the Parliament, the Ministry of Interior and the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information.

Markovic pointed out that the key results of the project are the realization of focus groups and the security school, as well as the publication which, as he said, represents an assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of young people about the security sector.

“Within the project, four focus groups were held with students and employees in state institutions, in order to map and analyze their attitudes and experiences on this topic,” Markovic said.

He said that the publication consists of two parts, stating that the first part analyzes the institutional and legal framework, with a focus on parliamentary control and oversight of the security sector.

“In the second part, we presented the key results of our research, which was conducted in November 2017. “Our interlocutors, both young people and representatives of security sector institutions, cited the problem of organized crime and corruption as the biggest security risk, followed by cyber terrorism and religious radicalism,” Markovic said.

He pointed out that the representatives of the security sector assessed the transparency of their work as absolutely satisfactory, while, as he said, young people characterized it quite negatively, because “they consider these institutions somewhat more closed to cooperation due to the legacy of socialism.” the work of these institutions. “

“Transparency, as they say, can be improved by greater availability of data by security sector bodies, then through dialogue with the civil sector, lectures by representatives of this sector at universities, and greater media involvement,” Markovic said.

He pointed out that the key recommendations of the publication are the creation of a platform for young people, which, he added, will ensure the availability of information related to the inclusion of young people in security sector institutions, implementation of projects and workshops for young people.

“It is necessary to hold regular meetings of representatives of institutions and youth, in order to present all possibilities for involving the interested public, as well as conducting campaigns on youth involvement, in order to raise awareness of all citizens about the importance of active youth role in decision-making,” he said. Markovic.

“This year’s school program was especially focused on the system of national security of Montenegro and the competencies of the security services, terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime, as well as democratic control of the security sector,” Markovic said.

This year, as he pointed out, the largest number of applications for participation in the security school arrived, which, in his opinion, shows that young people recognize the school as relevant and as a school that can bring them new knowledge, experiences and acquaintances.

“The recommendations of young people are always focused on the fact that CEDEM more often implements security schools. “I am sure that we will continue our long-term practice this year as well, all with the goal of bringing security challenges and the security sector closer to young people,” Markovic said.

The director of CEDEM, Milena Bešić, reminded that the organization has been monitoring the security sector since its establishment, as well as international and regional security dynamics, with, as she said, special emphasis on Montenegro.

“Young people are a particularly sensitive category of the population, which is exposed to numerous problems, especially in transitional societies, which are dynamically changing in the process of building a full democratic order,” Besic said.

She said that the presence of violence in society, terrorism, organized crime, the increase in juvenile delinquency and hate speech, internet security and exclusion from the decision-making process are just some of the sources and forms of endangering the safety of young people in local communities.