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EN Bigosint News Projects

The Euro-Arab Foundation will participate in the final conference of BIGOSINT against trafficking in human beings

On 3 April, BIGOSINT, a project funded by the European Commission’s Internal Security Fund, will conclude two years of work to combat human trafficking through the analysis of Big Data and OSINT (Open Source INTelligence) at a conference in the Italian city of Bologna. The event will be attended by representatives of the four partners that have developed this European project: the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Ordinary Court of Trento (Italy), coordinator of the project, Agenfor International (Italy), the University for Public Administration in Bremen (Germany) and the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Spain).

Sergio Bianchi, Director of the Agenfor International Foundation, will be in charge of the opening with an overview of the project, the risk assessment in the cycle of smart tools for information collection and, together with Rihab Ben Ammar, the analysis of new human trafficking routes.

Afterwards, Marijke Paulien Van Reijsen from MBS Engineering will present an analysis and explain the use of FAST Data, a real-time Big Data process, in the context of preventing and breaking human trafficking networks. Gianni Franzoi, Senior Commissioner of the Venice Local Police, will give his experience with the multi-agency cooperation model and new tools and Yuval Sanders, Managing Director of Falkor Ltd., will give an overview of public-private prevention with a hands-on practice on the TANGLES platform.

In the afternoon session, Emanuele Florindi, an IT lawyer, will present applications for monitoring the financial activity of traffickers in cyberspace. José González Riera, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies and José Martínez Marín, from the Local Police of Murcia; Trygve Ben Holland, from the University for Public Administration in Bremen; Ivan Stenico and Nicola Cordeschi from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Ordinary Court of Trento will present cases of trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, the investigation of online crime and the indicators (red flags) of trafficking.

The event will conclude with the presentation of the Social Engagement Report: Overview and Results by Naz Öztürk, Project Manager and OSINT Analyst at Agenfor International.

The final conference, which will be simultaneously interpreted English-Italian-English, can be followed online, for which registration is required: https://forms.gle/bfX6LDzD3YazbJ7U9

More information on the project: https://projects.fundea.org/bigosint/

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News

The Euro-Arab Foundation participates in training on violent radicalisation and jihadist extremism

This Thursday, the Euro-Arab Foundation gave the seminar Prevention of Radicalisation in the EU and Member States: policies, strategies and areas of action from multi-level and multi-agency approaches, as part of the University Course on violent radicalisation and jihadist extremism organised by the University Centre of the Civil Guard, attached to the Carlos III University of Madrid, and aimed at the Civil Guard, the judiciary and local authorities.

Javier Ruipérez, Director of Research and Projects at the Euro-Arab Foundation, and Daniel Pérez, researcher at the same, were in charge of this training, whose objectives were to contextualise the launch and consolidation of European prevention policies; to review the evolution of the psychosocial models that explain radicalisation and to address the multi-agency and multi-level prevention approach.

Spanish National counter-terrorism strategy

In this seminar, the Spanish National Strategy against Terrorism (ENCOT-2023), which was approved this week by the National Security Council, served as an example within the state plans that reflect the strategic recommendations of the European Commission.

The researchers from the Euro-Arab Foundation, both belonging to the Area of Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism, stressed that prevention policies, whether European, national or local, ‘must be based on scientific knowledge, for which it is essential to study both risk indicators and protection indicators, and that it should be a cross-cutting approach that can be used for jihadism as well as for multiple ideologies’.

On the one hand, the need to invest more in primary prevention, the first level of the pyramidal representation of society to which the majority of the non-radicalised population belongs, was stressed. The second level covers the population susceptible to radicalisation and the third level covers radical or terrorist individuals.

For the Euro-Arab experts, there is a risk of population transfer from the first level to the third, due to the current process of polarisation, and the measures to be taken in that case would be much more difficult to implement and much more costly. To avoid this, they said, “it is essential to focus on prevention policies in protection and on people’s resilience and autonomy”.

Finally, the importance of “bringing European policy down to the local level”, through national plans, and ensuring that there is feedback, i.e. “that the local level also inspires national plans and European policies to combat violent radicalisation and extremism”, was also highlighted.

The Euro-Arab Foundation, through its research group, has carried out various training activities on the prevention of radicalisation in European projects in which it participates, in Spanish universities or through the European Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN).

Prevention and coping with violent radicalisation. A guide for frontline practitioners. Published by the University of Cordoba and co-published by CIFAL and the Euro-Arab Foundation.

Categories
EN Mirad News Projects RADICALIZACION EN

MIRAD project ends bringing together research, policy and practice in the fight against multi-ideological radicalisation

The final event of the European MIRAD project ended two years of work dedicated to assestment and prevention of radicalisation. The objectives of the MIRAD project were achieved thanks to the cooperation of the project consortium partners, to which the Euro-Arab Foundation belongs,  from seven European countries, together with a group of experts from the MIRAD Advisory Board, the KES Advisory Council and members of the Expert Boards on Jihadist Extremism and Right-wing Extremism.

The event was opened by Christiane Hoehn, Principal Advisor to the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, who acknowledged the good work of the MIRAD project and its alignment with the strategic orientations of the European Commission. The final conference was attended by leading practitioners, prison staff, security forces, probation officers, NGOs and policy makers from different EU and non-EU countries.

During the event, the results of the project were presented, such as a tool to assess the reliability and capacity of NGOs to support de-radicalisation processes. Among the most expected results, the adaptation of the IRS risk assessment tool to consider the role of gender and ideology in the radicalisation process with a focus on right-wing extremism and jihadist extremism stands out.

Besides, a series of collaborative protocols for multi-agency transition were presented, stemming from the key role played by CSOs/NGOs and volunteers in promoting reintegration programmes, fostering inter-agency cooperation. The results of mixed-method training courses (training of trainers, e-Learning course, virtual reality training scenarios) to maximise the results of radicalisation disengagement and reintegration programmes were also made public.

Some of the conclusions reached at the final MIRAD event were the still high threat of islamist terrorism and the growing danger of right-wing extremism. The need for rehabilitation outside and inside prison and the need to assess what happens after prison was also addressed, as well as the identification of prisoners vulnerable to radicalisation as a basis for prevention and disengagement, and the promotion of models and protocols for inter-sectoral and inter-institutional collaboration.

Categories
EN Hatedemics News

The Center for Andalusian Studies and the Euro-Arab Foundation will work to combat hate speech in a common European project

The Andalusian Studies Centre (CENTRA), based in Seville, and the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, based in Granada, have held a meeting at the headquarters of the latter to coordinate the latest aspects of the European project HATEDEMICS, which will unite them in the task of preventing and combating polarisation and the spread of racist, xenophobic and intolerant discourses and conspiracy theories through technologies based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The project, funded by the European Commission, will be coordinated by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler and has thirteen partners: the Euro-Arab Foundation, CENTRA and Maldita. es in Spain; Saher Europe (Estonia), European Association for Local Democracy (France); CESIE, the Fact-Checking Factory SRL and the Commune of Trento (Italy); Solidarity and Overseas SErvice and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Security, Reforms and Equality (Malta) and the Centre for Citizenship Education, the National Research Institute and the Association of Demagogues (Poland).

The Euro-Arab Foundation will lead the work package that will define the approach, the socio-technical requirements and the methodology to be used, considering both the current trends of hate speech and disinformation, online multi-target discrimination and the needs of the target groups of this project, NGOs and CSOs, policy makers, legal authorities, IT companies, journalists and fact-checkers, the academic and research sector and the general public using the Internet and social networks.

The Andalusian Studies Centre, for its part, will be in charge of the report that will form the basis of the future HATEDEMICS Platform with which to prevent, tackle and denounce multi-target discrimination, online hate and misinformation, with updated, specific and effective indicators for better management of hate speech phenomena, applying the results of focus groups and semi-structured interviews, with recommendations for transferability and adaptability for the promotion of alternative narratives.

One of the main goals of HATEDEMICS is to improve the capacities and critical thinking of the target groups with reliable AI tools, combined with advanced data collection methods, will allow for more tailored online interventions resulting in more efficient and effective efforts of both professionals and volunteers. The vision is to maintain fairness and balance by applying appropriate measures and ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards.

The launch of the HATEDEMICS project is scheduled to take place on 17 April in the city of Trento with a kick-off meeting attended by all partners.

Categories
EN PARTES News Projects

The Euro-Arab Foundation organises a conference in Melilla on interreligious dialogue and hate crime prevention

Participatory approaches to the protection of places of worship is the title given to the forum hosted by the Government Delegation in Melilla on Thursday, organised by the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies in the framework of the PARTES project funded by the European Commission. The Government Delegate, Sabrina Moh, opened the event by thanking Melilla for having been chosen as the venue for this forum and pointing out the importance of working for the prevention of hate crimes, inter-religious dialogue, tolerance and respect.

“We are witnessing the emergence of messages of polarisation and tension, and I think it is vital to work to prevent hate crimes, which is something that we must do together institutions and entities while focusing on this issue so that society is aware of this problem and tools are put in place to put an end to it”, Moh indicated.

On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio Sánchez Ortega, recalled that the aim of the organisation he represents is to create bridges of collaboration, knowledge and research. He therefore recognised that Melilla is a “privileged” place, as it is an “estuary of civilisations and cultures which perfectly demonstrates this coexistence and this model of participation”. Sánchez stressed that the results of these conference “will feed into the PARTES project and it will serve as a model for transfer to civil society”.

The working session was also attended by the representative of the European Commission’s funding programme, Tamara Muñoz, representatives of the State Security Forces and Corps, and members of the city’s religious communities, among other civil society organisations.

The PARTES project

The European PARTES project started on 31 March 2023 and is scheduled to end in April 2025. It proposes to develop, through an empirical, inclusive and participatory methodology, a comprehensive prevention model for the protection of places of worship (synagogues, mosques, and churches) in the European Union, thus also preventing hate crimes against religious communities.

The Euro-Arab Foundation leads the “Threats and Responses Overview” Work Package which coordinates the research to establish an overview of attacks on religious communities, hate crimes against them, and existing protection measures. It identifies also good practices for cooperation between religious institutions and public authorities, for the protection of places of worship. The Euro-Arab was also in charge of organising the participatory workshop in Melilla, held on Wednesday at the UGR, and the inter-religious forum on Thursday at the headquarters of the Government Delegation in Melilla.

Euroarab researcher and organiser of the PARTES conference in Melilla, José Luis Salido, giving the participatory workshop, held at the UGR.
Euro-Arab Foundation’s researcher and organiser of the PARTES conference in Melilla, José Luis Salido, giving the participatory workshop, held at the UGR.
Inauguración del taller participativo, celebrado en la UGR, a cargo de César Solano, decano de la Facultad de Ciencias Salud (UGR), Tamara Muñoz, responsable de programa de la Dirección General de Migraciones y Asuntos de Interior de la Comisión Europea y José Luis Salido, investigador de la Fundación Euroárabe y organizador de las jornadas.
Opening of the participatory workshop, held at the UGR, by César Solano, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences (UGR), Tamara Muñoz, Programme Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, and José Luis Salido, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation and organiser of the conference.
Meeting of the Euro-Arab researchers, José Luis Salido and Daniel Pérez, with Fadela Mohatar, Councillor for Culture, Cultural Heritage and the Elderly of Melilla and Marta Marzol, advisor for Culture of the Council, in the framework of the PARTES project conference.
Meeting of the Euro-Arab researchers, José Luis Salido and Daniel Pérez, with Fadela Mohatar, Councillor for Culture, Cultural Heritage and the Elderly of Melilla and Marta Marzol, advisor for Culture of the Council, in the framework of the PARTES project conference.
Inauguration of the forum 'Participatory approaches to the protection of places of worship' at the Government Delegation of Melilla, with the Government Delegate, Sabrina Moh, and the Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio Sánchez Ortega.
Opening of the forum ‘Participatory approaches to the protection of places of worship’ at the Government Delegation of Melilla, with the Government Delegate, Sabrina Moh, and the Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio Sánchez Ortega.