News and updates from BCSDN and the region
During the United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2020, the global civil society platform CPDE, warned on being off-track in achieving the SDGs, which are under further threat amid COVID-19, as indicated in its survey on the implementation of the SDGs and the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). The HLPF 2020 is the UN’s main platform for
Read more →The advocacy paper published by IDSC shares and supports the position of the European Commission, that CSOs are natural partners to the Parliament, apart from the institutions of the system, emphasizing that both the Parliament and CSOs represent and safeguard the same interests – the interests of the citizens of North Macedonia The paper focuses
Read more →The Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering of Serbian Ministry of Finance has created a list of media and CSOs, and individuals demanding access to their bank records to determine whether they are connected to money laundering or operations to finance terrorism. The Office for cooperation with Civil Society recalls that the cooperation with
Read more →The report identifies initiatives that governments and civil society need to take to respond to the challenge that COVID 19 causes to the democracies. It notes the threats to democracy that governments are restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of assembly and movement, under the guise of managing the pandemic. The report
Read more →After two years of consultations on the new Media Law, the Legislative Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro, approved the bill, sending it to the further parliamentary procedure. Meanwhile, proposals for additional changes are permanently catching up from the civil sector, the media, and MPs. The civil sector asked for specification of the protection of
Read more →A group of Serbian CSOs and media filed a complaint with the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection for the incomplete response of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia concerning health data of Serbian citizens. According to the Coalition for Freedom of Access to Information, the public has a right
Read more →ECNL welcomed the adoption of the first-ever General Comment No. 37 on Article 21, ICCPR (Right to Peaceful Assembly). The final text adopted by the Committee took stock of all the detailed analysis that ECNL and other CSOs across the world, and experts provided and facilitated in the last two years. They notably contributed on
Read more →The paper presents key findings from FRA’s second consultation of its Fundamental Rights Platform, focusing on the experiences of CSOs working on human rights. The second annual consultation shows that many of the human rights organizations that FRA cooperates with continue to face challenges in their daily work. Some of the finding demonstrate that more
Read more →As the enabling environment for CSOs is threatened and civic spaces continue to close, the legitimacy, transparency and accountability (LTA) of civil society is increasingly questioned by governments and individuals alike. There is a strong need for CSOs to foster a culture of accountability and transparency to improve their working relationship with constituents and enhance
Read more →MCIC published a report on the governance practices on transparency and accountability of CSOs in North Macedonia. The research is part of the program “Sustainable Civil Society – State Financing of CSOs, implemented by MCIC together with BCSDN and CNVOS from Slovenia during the period 2018-2021. The program is funded by the EU. The report
Read more →At a special summit in Brussels on 21 July, the EU leaders agreed on an overall budget of 824 trillion EUR. Combining the multiannual financial framework (MFF) and an extraordinary recovery effort known as the Next Generation EU (NGEU), the package will help the EU to rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic and will support investment
Read more →Civil society actors and the European Parliament state that the Council decisions about the EU multiannual budget are not acceptable, and that mobilization and institutional discussions have to redress its shortcomings and ill-directions. ECF considers that the present Council decision about the Multiannual Financial Framework and the Next Generation EU funding does not reflect people’s
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