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 :

 

 

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)

https://soc.kuleuven.be/immrc

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