The first Working Group (WG) session that took place on 10 - 11 October 2019 in Trebinje resulted in the first draft that defined the main principles and structure of a Strategic policy document (Strategy) aiming at facilitating the implementation of operational procedures in prison for violent extremist prisoners (VEPs), their rehabilitation and inter-agency cooperation. The main goal of the Strategy is strengthening the prison service to provide a safe, humane, and secure custody that guarantees the protection of rights and dignity of violent and extremist prisoners with the aim of their rehabilitation and reinsertion into communities.

The WG, composed of professionals from the Ministries of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska, as well as from the prisons in the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska, agreed that the Strategy shall focus on the following areas: prison organisation and management, rehabilitation and reintegration, staff training, legislation and secondary legislation and multi-agency cooperation.

This session was held as part of the activities of the project ''Structured sentence management for violent and extremist prisoners", funded by the voluntary contribution of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and implemented by the Council of Europe.