CIAOSN 2.0 Educatjon Vs Cults? 02 June 2018 Kerstjne VANDERPUT - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

CIAOSN 2.0 Educatjon Vs Cults? 02 June 2018 Kerstjne VANDERPUT Director

Agenda  Who are we?  20 years of actjvitjes  Identjfjed challenges  Classical threat  Virtual threat  Educatjon? “Exercise critjcal thinking through building knowledge”

Centre for Informatjon and Advice on Harmful Cultjc Organizatjons Created in 1998 in Brussels (Belgium) as an independent body following a parliamentary inquiry CIAHCO Administrative = Coordination Cell (ACC) Belgian Board of Parliament  Federal Administrators collaborates appoints magistrate  State Security  Federal Police Belgian Ministry Secretariat  … •Service of Justice •Library appoints

Centre for Informatjon and Advice on Harmful Cultjc Organizatjons Missions given by the legal framework Advice Information Recommandation Collaborate with requested/offered to the public to the Belgian the Administrative from/to the Belgian authorities Coordination Cell authorities (ACC) Independence Objectjvity Reasoned opinion

Centre for Informatjon and Advice on Harmful Cultjc Organizatjons - Deceptjve or abusive recruitment - Mental manipulatjon Organization - Physical or mental abuse - Deprivatjon of adequate medical care - Violence, including sexual - Break with the inner circle - Abductjon of children Cultic - Deprivatjon of freedom to leave the organizatjon - Disproportjonate fjnancial requirements, fraud and embezzlement - Exploitatjon of work Harmful - Total break with democratjc society and destructjon of the society in profjt of the organizatjon - Use of illegal methods to occupy power

20 years of actjvitjes  The need of the public does not fade, on the contrary !  The monitored organizatjons in Belgium: - their structural size has decreased - they follow immigratjon routes and therefore are mainly urban at fjrst - trends linked to health, therapy and counselling are mushrooming - sometjmes have decreased their physical scope but…  Recruitment and manipulatjon are more and more taking place in the virtual world !!!!!

Locatjon of the organizatjons

Identjfjed challenges: how do we deal with the ‘classical threat’?  Criminal procedure  Towards a more administrative approach • Prevention (highly comprehensive and accurate information, timely transmitted) • Action against recruitment directed to ‘weak audiences’ (identify the evolving modus operandi and offer adequate counter measures) • Recommendation to public stakeholders (Ministries of Finances, Health, …

Identjfjed challenges: how do we deal with the ‘virtual threat’?  Motivation of the organizations =  Along with the target audience, identify the evolving modus operandi of the organizations  Adapt new criterias to evaluate the harmfulness?

Educatjon? “Exercise critjcal thinking through building knowledge”  Priority given to the youth but the target audience reaches far beyond  Brochure: “Young people facing cultjc drifu”  Preventjon campaign in schools But what about the virtual threat?

Questjons?