Civil Society against Organised Crime: Roles, Methods and Practices

International legislative framework does not properly recognise the relevance of civil society in the fight against organised crime and does not provide for full civil society participation. As a consequence, the effort of civil society to achieve progress in fighting organised crime and build a strong and stable communication channels for key stakeholders in the public and private sector remains questionable. This is why civil society advocates the revision of the existing international legislative framework.

Civil society plays two main roles in tackling the issue of organised crime. It is very useful in exposing illicit organised crime activities, and it can serve as support to criminal justice efforts and reforms in the fight against organised crime. However, the challenge lies in the fact that most civil society organisations are specialised or focused on one specific area of organised crime. They also depend on national situations and donors’ funding availability. On the other hand, civil society can link relevant institutions and the private sector in the fight against organised crime.

An educational-political study entitled “Civil Society Against Organized Crime: Roles, Methods and Practices” was prepared by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. It is part of the project “Western Balkans Organized Crime Radar (WB-OCR)”, aimed at bridging the gap between the commitments made by Western Balkan governments (WB6) when it comes to fighting organized crime and their not-so-great results in the field. The publication was financially supported by the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of a German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade.