4.2 Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina Activities Related to General Police Development and Reform Police Monitoring and Confidence-Building The Mission continued to support the BiH Parliamentary Assembly’s Joint Committee on Defence and Security (JC D&S), as this body is an important mechanism for security oversight and contributes to comprehensive security reforms. On 24 April, the Joint Committee visited the BiH Agency for Police Support. The main objective of the visit was to familiarize members of parliament with the Agency’s current activities and achieved results to enable the Joint Committee to provide a better budgetary, legislative and administrative framework for the Agency’s work. The findings of the visit will also allow the JC D&S to address indicated inadequacies and to request remedial actions. The Mission continuously supports corrective actions by the agencies through its activities and advocacy. Such visits emphasize transparency, mutual trust, respect and shared responsibilities between the parliament and the security sector. This transparency and trust represents a foundation for strengthening democratic structures and democratization in society. Anti-Corruption The Mission continued to raise awareness of the risks posed by corruption as well as to assist BiH’s security sector institutions in establishing a corruption prevention system to mitigate these risks. On 20 and 21 April, the Mission organized the Short Specialized Course on BiH Security Policy for representatives of security institutions involved in building capacities for the fight against corruption at all levels of government in BiH. The course contributed to building capacities within relevant institutions fighting corruption at all levels, as the Security Policy’s implementation requires the full engagement of all state bodies in order to provide comprehensive insight into all aspects of state security. Participants developed recommendations for the BiH Security Policy by encouraging the BiH Council of Ministers’ Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Security Policy Implementation and Training to recognize corruption as a security threat, so that it will be incorporated into the BiH Security Policy in the future. The course recommendations aim to “securitize” corruption, whereby political corruption is recognized as endangering national security. 48 Community Policing, Police-Public Relations and Crime Prevention On 11 May, the Mission organized a short specialized security policy course in Brčko District, focusing on community policing and the prevention of terrorism. It dealt with one of the biggest threats recognized in the BiH Security Policy - terrorism - as well as mechanisms on how the State combats terrorism while focusing on the police and the community policing approach. The course emphasized the Mission’s support to the host country in its efforts to control and prevent terrorism, by promoting a co-operative and coordinated approach at all levels, including among national authorities, civil society, the media and international and regional organizations. Participants looked into current BiH legislation and its strategy for the fight against terrorism, with a view to implement improvements to this strategy in its local level application. This course is a part of a wider security policy training programme, which aims to ensure a better understanding of the security policy of BiH as well as the place, role, and obligations of BiH’s institutions and other actors in ensuring the efficient functioning of BiH’s security sector. On 14 November, the Mission organized a one day P/C VERLT seminar for the Tuzla Canton Police in Tuzla. Presentations included the BiH Strategy for Prevention and Countering Terrorism 2015 – 2020, the process of radicalization into violence, psychological aspects of radicalization, the role of faith, religion and ideology in P/C VERLT, research data about FTFs, and local level responses to VERLT. The OSCE Guidebook on Community Policing in P/C VERLT was used during the training and then shared with all participants. Most of the participants stressed the need for continued work in the field of P/C VERLT, especially in working together with communities using the community policing approach. Hate Crime In 2017, in order to improve the criminal justice system’s response to bias-motivated incidents and hate crimes in BiH, the Mission carried out a number of capacity-building and awareness-raising activities involving law enforcement agencies and other relevant stakeholders, focusing on security and equality aspects of this issue. The Mission paired up internal expertise with external trainers to deliver presentations at these events. On 17 March and 9 November, the Mission organized workshops on hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents in Brčko District (BD), involving representatives from the Roma community and BD police, to discuss security issues and foster a more co-operative community approach from the police towards important issues identified by the Roma community. The workshops also served to discuss adequate