Category: Projects

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EN Interrad EUKH EN News Projects RADICALIZACION EN

The Euro-Arab Foundation participates in the EUROCRIM Annual Congress with an interdisciplinary panel on policies for the prevention of violent extremism

From September 11 to 14, the Annual Congress of the European Society of Criminology, EUROCRIM, in its twenty-fourth edition, is taking place at the University of Bucharest. The Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, Antonio Sanchez, and the Director of Research and Projects of the same, Javier Ruipérez, have participated with the panel Interdisciplinary approaches to radicalization, political violence, and the relationship between terrorism and crime to advance P/CVE (Program for the Prevention and Combating of Violent Extremism).

The panel, moderated by Sánchez, is part of the INTERRAD project whose aim is to contribute to the challenge of Security, Safety and Defense by addressing cooperation in the prevention of violent radicalization of a jihadist nature in the framework of the European Union (EU) through an interdisciplinary perspective. Ruipérez presented an update on P/CVE strategic communications. Other speakers were:

  • Carlos Echeverría Jesús, Professor of Terrorism and International Relations at UNED, who spoke about the role of Daesh and Al-Qaeda as central actors in the expansion of jihadist ideology;
  • Roberto Muelas Lobato, Assistant Professor and Doctor of the University of Burgos in the Area of Social Psychology, and member of the research group Social Inclusion and Quality of Life, who spoke about the side effects of the program for the prevention of violent extremism ‘Fenix Andalucía’; and
  • Salvador Berdún Carrión, PhD in Criminology from the University of Granada and Director of the Department of Studies of ACAIP, who addressed the influence of National Security and terrorism in European Prison Regimes.
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EUKH EN News Projects RADICALIZACION EN

The Euro-Arab Research Director reflects on the causes and prevention of radicalization

“Radicalization and violent extremism: opportunities for prevention.”

Javier Ruipérez Canales, Director of Research and Projects at the Euro-Arab Foundation, invites us to unravel the roots of violent extremism in his book, Radicalization and violent extremism: opportunities for prevention, published by Tirant Lo Blanch. The author offers an innovative analysis of the phenomenon of radicalization, moving away from predominantly securitarian perspectives. Through exhaustive research, Ruipérez concludes that preventing radicalization requires a comprehensive approach that addresses the underlying social causes. His work, inspired by the events of 11-M and subsequent European policies, becomes an essential reference for understanding this complex problem.

Ruipérez shows how social fractures, polarization and hate speeches push vulnerable individuals towards radicalization. In his work, the author defends the need to address radicalization as a social problem rooted in inequalities and exclusions, beyond a mere security issue.

About the author

Javier Ruipérez Canales is Director of Research and International Projects at the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Granada), where he is also the main researcher in the Area of Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, a field in which he has more than ten years of experience in which he has developed numerous researches, innovation and development projects.

PhD. in Social Sciences from the University of Granada, Ruipérez is director of Strategic Communication of the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation of the European Commission, in which the Euro-Arab Foundation participates, trainer in the field of radicalization and prevention for professionals in social and security fields and advisor for national and international institutions. He is the author of several academic publications and is a member of the Network of Experts on Hate Crimes and Underreporting (REDOI), of the European Community of Researchers on Radicalization of the European Commission (ERCOR), among others.

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Intercepted News Projects

INTERCEPTED and OSINT-RADAR Co-Host Seminar on Trafficking in Human Beings this September

The OSINT-RADAR and INTERCEPTED Projects are jointly organizing a seminar on Trafficking in Human Beings which will take place on September 19th and will be offered in a blended format, allowing for both in-person attendance in Tirana, Albania, and virtual participation online.

Trafficking in Human Beings remains a persistent global challenge, significantly hindering the effectiveness of criminal justice and social systems. This complexity arises from the inherent nature of the crime itself, the growing digitalization of trafficking networks, heightened social and economic vulnerabilities, and mass displacement leading to humanitarian crises.

This seminar will equip participants with essential knowledge and tools to combat THB. The agenda will focus on:

  • Community of Practices for Scenario Awareness and Identification of DaaS (Digital as a Service)
  • Focus on Financial Transactions and Money Laundering: An Analysis of the modus operandi of different criminal groups specialized in different scenarios and how they operate. Introduction to the ‘Follow the Money’ approach
  • The financial component of THB: the perspective of the investigators and prosecutors
  • Strengthening Alliances – Guidelines for Effective Public-Private Cooperation in Countering Human Trafficking

The seminar will be conducted in English and adhere to the Chatham House Rule. This rule ensures all information shared during closed-door discussions remains confidential regarding its source.

Please register for the Seminar using the following EU Survey: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/InterceptedOnlineSeminar

The meeting link will be provided prior to the event*

ABOUT INTERCEPTED programme

INTERCEPTED is a project funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. Developed by a consortium of six partners, it includes the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, Agenfor International Foundation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trieste, the Institute of Police and Security Research at Hochschule für, the Hellenic Police, and the Center for Security Studies-Kentro Meleton Asfaleias-KEMEA.

The project aims to disrupt the digital model of THB by improving the digital capabilities of law enforcement and judicial authorities, focusing on two points for the disruption: recruitment and advertisement, considering that the methods used in terms of language, platforms, targets, and strategies vary according to the profiles of the victims and the type of exploitation.

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Intercepted News Projects

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 and observed annually on July 30th, the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons aims to raise awareness of this heinous crime.In alignment with this year’s global campaign focused on accelerating action to end child trafficking, INTERCEPTED is launching its second targeted campaign with a firsthand account from a leading expert in child protection who works together with victims, NGOs, and government institutions.

📹 Watch here the video of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons subtitled in different languages:

https://intercepted-project.eu/campaign-2/

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IN2PREV-en News Projects

The Euro-Arab Foundation, in charge of adapting a new tool to assess vulnerability and risk factors of refugees in the framework of IN2PREV project

The Euro-Arab Foundation is in the process of adapting the Frontline Extremism Vulnerability Risk – Structured Evaluation Screening (FEVR-SES), a new tool created within the framework of the European IN2PREV project, which will allow assessing different vulnerability and risk factors of refugees and asylum seekers. This calibration work is being made possible thanks to the dialogue and multi-agency collaboration of experts, police forces and social entities with which the Euro-Arab Foundation has been able to discuss, in a national online calibration workshop, the points to be improved, adjusted or reinforced.

The FEVR-SES tool, which was already assessed in another workshop last month at international level, seeks the early detection of vulnerabilities and protection factors with assessment indicators, such as mental health, psychosocial well-being or the migration experience itself, which are essential for social inclusion and the development of public policies that promote a diverse society.

IN2PREV is a European project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme in which the Euro-Arab Foundation is leading research on methodologies for assessing the vulnerabilities of refugees and asylum seekers, the development of a manual on ethics and respect for human rights in interventions with refugees, the national implementation of the IN2PREV mentoring programme and the development of training programmes.

In this context, Euro-Arab also held a national mentoring event last May for frontline professionals from social organisations, NGOs and mediation services working with asylum seekers and refugees. This IN2PREV mentoring service will continue with training in September for Spanish NGOs, as well as those from the project’s partner countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Moldova, Portugal, Poland and Romania) in order to subsequently launch pilot mentoring programmes in their respective territories.

Soon, the Euro-Arab Foundation will publish a manual on guaranteeing human rights and ethics in Spanish for police forces and social entities, which will accompany a manual on good police practices in the treatment of asylum seekers.

More information on the IN2PREV website: https://www.in2prev.eu/

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EN Hatedemics News Projects

Euro-Arab and HATEDEMICS analyse hate speech and disinformation online with NGOs, journalists, fact-checkers and public authorities

The Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies has organised two meetings with fact-checkers, journalists, NGOs and activists to address hate speech, disinformation and digital environments. These meetings are part of the European project HATEDEMICS: Hindering hate speech and disinformation through Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies, which aims to strengthen preventive and reactive measures against hate speech and disinformation online. To this end, the project aims to empower NGOs/CSOs, fact-checkers, public authorities and youth to effectively prevent and combat polarisation, the spread of racist, xenophobic and intolerant discourses, as well as conspiracy theories, by adopting a perspective focused on multi-agency collaboration, artificial intelligence, social networks and youth, as well as comprehensive care for victims and affected communities.

The first meeting took place on 17 July from 12pm to 2pm at the Euro-Arab headquarters in Granada. The discussion group was made up of activists, representatives of civil society and NGOs with expertise in hate speech, disinformation and digital environments and new technologies. The debate was divided into several topics, on which each participant intervened and shared their experiences and knowledge from their area of expertise, such as the definition of ‘hate speech’, the current legislative framework or how political parties or civil society deal with hate speech, disinformation and conspiracy theories.

The second meeting took place on Wednesday, 24 July from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in an online format and brought together a group of journalists, information verifiers and a representative of law enforcement agencies to analyse the current challenges presented by the instrumentalisation of information for purposes that may represent hate crime and motivate conspiracy narratives. They also discussed the information verification tools they use, the legal framework for action and the resources available to combat hate speech and disinformation online.

The Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies is a non-profit institution that works to promote dialogue and cooperation between Euro-Arab societies. The Foundation develops research, training and awareness-raising projects in different areas of specialisation, with a special focus on the promotion of human rights, interculturality and peace. It is in this work that it participates in the HATEDEMICS project funded by the European Union and where it is responsible for the research work package, in charge of defining the approach, the socio-technical requirements and the methodology.

HATEDEMICS project website: https://hatedemics.eu/

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News Projects

Workshop “Misinformation and disinformation by state and non-state actors”

On 14 June, the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies organised the workshop Misinformation and disinformation by state and non-state actors, which brought together representatives of EU member states, researchers and high-level experts in the digital world. The main objective of this workshop, presented by Javier Ruipérez, Director of the Euro-Arab Foundation’s Research and Projects Department, and Eva Jiménez, from RAN Policy Support, was to address and mitigate the effects of disinformation and the influence of external actors with malicious intentions in the European Union, as well as to analyse current trends and threats and identify the main actors involved and understand their methods, highlighting disinformation campaigns and hybrid strategies.

Daniel Pérez García, Euro-Arab researcher, moderated the session on how to increase resilience in the face of false information and misinformation. In the European context, the prevalence of both misinformation, i.e. false or inaccurate information spread without malicious intent, often as a result of rumours, misunderstandings or mistakes (El Mikati, et al.), and disinformation, the deliberate creation and dissemination of false information to mislead and manipulate the public (Torres-Soriano), has increased significantly in recent years, exacerbated by various factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts and the rise of new anti-system movements.

This turbulent environment has also seen the growth of conspiracy theories and the influence of external actors engaged in Sharp power actions that exploit digital platforms to carry out operations aimed at destabilising European democracies,

Facing disinformation with digital education and critical thinking

The workshop highlighted the intricate ways in which disinformation campaigns undermine democratic processes and sow social discord. Examples of state-sponsored disinformation were presented, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated responses to protect democratic integrity. Similarly, building resilience to disinformation promoting radical narratives was further explored, underlining the importance of a holistic, society-wide approach involving various sectors, including government, civil society and citizens.

Discussions underlined the importance of digital education, critical thinking skills, security and social cohesion measures at the local level to empower societies to identify and effectively combat disinformation. Particular attention was paid to the benefits of integrating emotional governance strategies to better manage the current poly-crisis, highlighting the importance of addressing emotions and public perceptions in crisis management strategies. Overall, the workshop underlined the imperative of collective action and innovative strategies to strengthen societies against the disruptive effects of disinformation in the European Union and its member states.

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News Projects Rebel EN

ReBel, a new project that will foster solidarity and promote a sense of belonging among migrant women

This Tuesday took place the official online launch of the ReBel (Redesign Belonging) project, which aims to address the challenges of our society related to solidarity and a sense of belonging by providing a co-creation model that fosters belonging and empowers migrant women who have been in host countries for more than five years. They will be the cornerstone and will collaborate with professional designers to create models and solutions for different contexts in the project’s development countries: Spain, Finland and the Netherlands.

ReBel has a duration of 20 months and is co-financed with 411,455 euros from the European Commission in the framework of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) and will be coordinated by the Finnish university Laurea of Applied Sciences. Together with Laurea, the project consortium includes the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Education (Spain), the international organisation What Design Can Do (The Netherlands) and the VISIO training centre (Finland). The Euro-Arab Foundation will be responsible for carrying out the research and benchmarking part of local, national and international projects focusing on migrant belonging. The results will be used to develop a survey to elicit migrants’ experiences and feelings of belonging.

Spain to host a meeting of migrant women

Euro-Arab will be in charge of the activities in Spain, which will take place in parallel in the other countries involved, bringing together migrant women with local citizens, NGO representatives, local and regional authorities, in workshops where open dialogue between the groups will be promoted. Migrants will be able to present the obstacles they faced, and continue to face, in integrating into the host society, as well as their resilience strategies. NGOs will also have the opportunity to talk about their experiences with regard to employment, education, hate crimes or xenophobia.

These workshops will then be used to develop improvements that both authorities and NGOs can implement in their day-to-day work. In order to involve policy makers, Euro-Arab will organise a roundtable in Spain, which will also include members of the European Commission. The researchers will draft three policy briefs per country which will be made public and translated into the main languages of migrants to ensure their accessibility.

Upcoming events

On 5 July, WDCD will organise an event in Amsterdam where the project will be presented and in September the official presentation in hybrid format (face-to-face and online) will take place in Finland.

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IN2PREV-en News Projects

National Mentoring Event for Social Entities working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Daniel Pérez García, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation and coordinator of IN2PREV

This morning, the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies held a national mentoring event aimed at leading professionals from social organisations, NGOs and mediation services working with asylum seekers and refugees. The director of the Department of Research and Projects, Javier Ruipérez Canales, together with the coordinator of this activity and researcher of this department, Daniel Pérez García, and Celia Sánchez Villarejo, both researchers of this department, have explained what the mentoring programme Approaching mentoring for a successful inclusion of Refugees and Asylum Seekers of the European project IN2PREV of which the Euro-Arab consortium is part of, and whose objectives include fostering cooperation and collaboration between police forces and NGOs representing refugees and asylum seekers. It also aims to establish accompaniment and inclusion strategies, adapting them to each context and improving the skills of professionals, thus mitigating any risk of vulnerability initially detected.

This mentoring programme, which will take place in 2025 simultaneously in Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Moldova, Portugal, Poland and Romania, is a group mentoring process, where each mentor can have up to 3 mentees. It includes a preparation phase for mentorees, as well as session plans that will help to create a safe space for the mentorees and foster better communication and the development of a climate of trust between the mentorees and the host community.

Thematic organisation of each mentoring session

A total of twelve mentoring sessions with an approximate duration of one and a half hours each have been established. They will deal with: 1. needs assessment; 2. bureaucratic issues involved in the migration process of the mentored persons; 3. integration into the host community with, for example, an open discussion on the differences and similarities between the country of origin and the host country; 4. language barriers; 5. religion and culture; 6. job search and the working environment; 7. educational environment; 8. social integration; 9. mental health; 10. health care system; 11. the connection with the country of origin and 12. reflection and closing session.

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EN PARTES News Projects

«From Margins to Targets: How to Counter Exclusion and Protect Religious Minorities»

Since March 2023, the PARTES project («Participatory approaches to protecting places of worship» – more information here), funded by the EU, has been investigating attacks on religious communities and respective places of worship. Their findings show that minority faiths are more likely to be targeted than mainstream religions. However, the question of the social motivations of this phenomenon remains to be answered.

Read the complete article by our researcher José Luis Salido here.