REGUIDE –
A Holistic, Restorative and Gendered approach to Guide Returnees to their Home country
Introduction
Project funded by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO).
2020-12-15 --- 2025-03-15
Project # B2/202/P3/REGUIDE
This project is coordinated by the VUB.
The official website of the whole project is : https://reguide.be
Description
REGUIDE - A Holistic, Restorative and Gendered approach to Guide Returnees to their Home country -develops an integrative and gendered approach for the reintegration of Belgian returnees in society. The project develops an interdisciplinary, holistic, multi-agency and multi-level approach to the reintegration of returnees, with a particular focus on gender.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian War in 2011, more than 5000 European citizens have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join various jihadi extremist groups. By 2017, one third of them have returned. Belgium had the highest ratio of “foreign terrorist fighters” (FTF) per capita (since 2012, 550- 600 individual were present in Syria and Iraq) and with a 30% return rate, Belgium has also the highest ratio of returnees per capita. The societal consequences of the phenomenon of current foreign fighters and returnees are unparalleled since previous Belgian and European links with jihadi organizations were on a significantly lower scale and easier to govern. These consequences include among others issues of security, justice, integration, and democracy. EU member states (MS) use divergent criminal justice, penitentiary, security and societal approaches vis-à-vis returnees. Existing research suggests that policies which overemphasize the use of hard measures fail to offer solutions that lead to a successful reintegration of returnees and their families and therefore to a sustainable security.
To that effect, the REGUIDE project aims to reguide both returnees and the society as a whole to create a sustainable and peaceful context. To reach this long-term vision, by using a variety of methodologies such as ethnography, discourse/legal/content analysis, arts-based and action research and interdisciplinary research based on law, criminology, anthropology, social psychology, political sciences and gender studies, REGUIDE discerns five objectives:
1. Create a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder Living Lab of expertise on returnee reintegration (RELAB),
2. Develop holistic knowledge on returnee reintegration in Belgium,
3. Develop a sustained restorative approach to returnee reintegration based on restorative, educational, and participatory interventions,
4. Develop a set of tools and recommendations for LEAs and other practitioners and policy makers, and
5. Share the project results and activities at the local, regional, national and European level.
More information :
- EN: REGUIDE_E.pdf
- FR: REGUIDE_F.pdf
- NL: REGUIDE_N.pdf
Partners
Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality (RHEA) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
https://researchportal.vub.be/en/projects/centre-of-expertise-gender-diversity-and-intersectionality
Faculty of Social Sciences & Solvay Business School of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
https://www.vub.be/en/faculty/social-sciences-solvay-business-school
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
https://www.vub.be/en/faculty/psychology-and-educational-sciences
Interculturalism, migration and minorities research centre (IMMRC) - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC) - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
https://www.law.kuleuven.be/linc/
The Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Constitutional and Administrative Law | Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches en Droit Constitutionnel et Administratif (CIRC) - Université Saint-louis-Bruxelles (USL-B)
http://www.circ.usaintlouis.be
Publications
Nothing yet.
Events
7. Second Follow-up committee meeting
Type: Face-to-face meeting
Location: WTC III, Brussels
Date: 18 October 2022
Organization: VUB & Belspo
6. Second family day
Type: Face-to-face meeting
Date: 15 October 2022
Organization: VUB
URL: https://reguide.be/second-family-day-june-2022/
5. Legal RELAB: legislation (and case-law)
Type: Face-to-face meeting
Date: 14 October 2022
Organization: VUB
URL: https://reguide.be/legal-relab-legislation-and-case-law/
4. Follow-up RELAB: Integration of the children
Type: Face-to-face meeting
Date: 30 March 2022
Organization: VUB
URL: https://reguide.be/follow-up-relab/
3. Kick-off RELAB
Type: Face-to-face meeting
Date: 19 January 2022
Organization: VUB
URL: https://reguide.be/kick-off-relab-january-2022/
2. REGUIDE project kickoff meeting
Type: Online and face-to-face meeting
Date: 19 October 2021
Organization: VUB
1. First family day
Type: Face-to-face meeting
Date: 17 October 2021
Organization: VUB
URL: https://reguide.be/family-day-october-2021/
Talks
3. Le rapatriement des « enfants du califat » : état des lieux et prise en charge à leur arrivée en Belgique
Remacle, C. (2023). Le rapatriement des « enfants du califat » : état des lieux et prise en charge à leur arrivée en Belgique. Talk given on 21 March 2023. Organization: U Namur.
2. Parcours socio-judiciaires des returnees en Belgique : état des lieux des acteurs impliqués et des procédures mises en place
Remacle, C., Mine, B., Jeuniaux, P., & Detry, I. (2023). Parcours socio-judiciaires des returnees en Belgique : état des lieux des acteurs impliqués et des procédures mises en place. Talk given on 16 March 2023 during an internal REGUIDE meeting. Organization: NICC-INCC.
1. Asset freezing as an administrative measure: a stumbling block to the reintegration of people convicted of terrorist offences ?
Remacle, C. (2022). Asset freezing as an administrative measure: a stumbling block to the reintegration of people convicted of terrorist offences ? Talk given on 23 September 2022 at the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in Málaga, Spain. Organization: Universidad de Málaga.
Contacts
Isabelle Detry | NICC-INCC | https://incc.fgov.be/detry-isabelle |
Coline Remacle | NICC-INCC | https://incc.fgov.be/remacle-coline |
Benjamin Mine | NICC-INCC | https://incc.fgov.be/mine-benjamin |
Patrick Jeuniaux | NICC-INCC | https://incc.fgov.be/jeuniaux-patrick |