Representatives from law enforcement, social services and youth affairs institutions in Kazakhstan worked to strengthen co-operation for addressing and preventing youth crime at a workshop in Astana organized by the OSCE's Transnational Threats Department and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, in co-operation with the OSCE Programme Office in Astana from 23 to 24 September.
The 25 participants explored international good practices and discussed how to adapt them to the national context. Through interactive sessions, they also worked on ways to better identify and prioritize cases of at-risk youth, address root causes of crime through social interventions, and build effective co-operation mechanisms between police and social services.
"Youth crime prevention requires strong co-ordination across all relevant actors," said Police Captain Dana Nurmaganbetova, juvenile inspector with the Nura District Police in Astana. "We are leaving this workshop with practical tools, from case prioritization to joint responses, that will help us make our work with at-risk youth stronger and more co-ordinated."
The workshop was organized as part of the OSCE's multi-year, extra-budgetary project, " Enhancing youth crime and drug use prevention through education on legality and awareness campaigns addressing threats of organized crime and corruption ," funded by Germany, with additional support from Andorra, Finland, Italy, Norway, Poland and Thailand.
