The AIRE Centre invites you to the regional webinar “Behind the Front: Women and Illicit Financial Flows in the Western Balkans.” This event will present key findings from the first regional study exploring the gendered dynamics of illicit finance across the Western Balkans.
Drawing on real-life cases and extensive field research, the webinar aims to raise awareness among professionals across sectors about the often-overlooked roles that women play in financial crime—whether as perpetrators, accomplices, victims, and enablers. The discussion will also offer concrete, gender-sensitive recommendations for improving institutional responses to illicit financial flows (IFFs).
This webinar is intended for policymakers, prosecutors, judges, financial sector professionals, civil society organisations, media, and researchers across the Western Balkans. The working language is English. No prior registration is required.
The webinar will be held on Thursday, June 26, 2025, from 13:00 to 14:30 CET via Zoom.
Join the webinar via this link.
Key discussion topics will include:
- The use of women as legal fronts and tools in money laundering and fraud
- The impact of coercion, economic dependence, and gender-based vulnerability
- How institutional blind spots perpetuate impunity and invisibility
- Recommendations for gender-responsive legal, financial, and policy reform
Speakers include:
- Sanja Dakić Petrović, Researcher, AIRE Centre
- Marija Jovanović, Research Fellow, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford
- Ariana Qosaj Mustafa, Adjunct Lecturer, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Eldan Mujanović, Professor, Faculty of Criminology, University of Sarajevo
The webinar is based on findings from the report Women and Illicit Finance in the Western Balkans: Expanding the Frontiers of Knowledge and Action which draws on discussions with over 100 stakeholders across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
