The First Regional Workshop on ‘Strengthening of Justice and Home Affairs Statistics in the Western Balkans’ was held in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, from 12-14 of May 2010, as part of the project ‘Development of Monitoring Instruments for Judicial and Law Enforcement Institutions in the Western Balkans’. The project is supported by EU under CARDS program and has as its main aim to bring justice and home affairs (JHA) statistical systems in compliance with international and EU standards. The event was organized by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in cooperation with Ministry of Justice of Macedonia.

It was opened by His Excellency Mr. Mihailo Manevski – Minister of Justice of Macedonia. The workshop was attended by experts from relevant JHA institutions of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, covering police, prosecution, courts, border authorities and national statistical offices, as well as UNODC staff and local focal points, project partners and associates, representatives of international organizations. The final technical assessment reports were presented to the participents, who, in the course of the discussions, adopted the following conclusions and recommendations:

1. Participants agreed on the importance of strengthening the capacities of Justice and Home Affairs institutions, including police, prosecution, courts, and institutions involved in asylum, visa and migration issues, to record, compile, report and disseminate statistics that are timely, accurate, reliable and in accordance with international standards and EU acquis and current practices.
2. Participants recommended continued work on the further development of crime and criminal justice statistics systems, as well as those for migration, asylum and visa issues, based on the UNODC Technical Assessment Reports and the recommendations contained in the Programme Guidelines, as revised during the workshop for each country or territory.
3. Participants recognized the importance of applying general statistical principles in the production and dissemination of crime and criminal justice data, such as transparency, accuracy and consistency.
4. The workshop further discussed and agreed on a set of JHA regional indicators in line with indicators commonly used at EU and international levels.
5. Participants have agreed on the individual, national priority needs of training on the development of administrative systems of collection, aggregation, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data in accordance with EU and other international standards. The training should start in September 2010.

Regional Anti-corruption Initiative (RAI) Secretariat was represented by Mr. Stanislav Aleksandrov – Anti-Corruption Expert. RAI Secretariat facilitates the project ”Development of Monitoring Instruments for Judicial and Law Enforcement Institutions in the Western Balkans” as associate partner to UNODC.

For more information, please, have a look at the attached report and conclusions of the event.