OSCE organizes workshop on youth crime and drug use prevention in Dushanbe

Trends, challenges, lessons learned and best practices in the field of youth crime and drug use prevention, and the need to strengthen educational programmes to foster youth’s understanding on the threats of organized crime, corruption and drug use were discussed at a workshop held on 1 March 2022 in Dushanbe. The Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and the OSCE Transnational Threats Department co-organized the event with the OSCE Academy in Bishkek.

The event brought together representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Agency for State Financial Control and Fight against Corruption, the Drug Control Agency, and the Committee for Youth Affairs, Sports and Tourism of the Republic Tajikistan, as well as school teachers, university professors and civil society experts.

During the workshop, experts from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) introduced the UNODC Education4Justice and Global Programme on Prevention materials, which provide educators with guidance on how to teach youth on the dangers of organized crime, corruption and drug use.

In his opening remarks Amirov Jaloliddin, Chief Specialist of Primary and Secondary Professional Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan stressed the importance of fostering a culture of lawfulness among youth to prevent youth crime and drug use. He also emphasized how the workshop will help as effective platform for participants to exchange best practices and enrich their experience and knowledge in the field of youth crime and drug use prevention to apply this in their daily activities.

Project managers Eni Gjergji and Denise Mazzolani emphasized that the OSCE stands ready to assist the Republic of Tajikistan in implementing their National Drug Control Strategy and the State Anti-Corruption Strategy, fostering prevention of these phenomena through educating youth.

The workshop was held in the framework of the OSCE-wide project “Enhancing youth crime and drug use prevention through education on legality and awareness campaigns addressing threats of organized crime and corruption”. This extra-budgetary project, financed by Germany, aims to prevent transnational organized crime, corruption and drug use by complementing criminal justice efforts, fostering a culture of lawfulness among youth through education, and other social activities.