News and updates from BCSDN and the region
ICSW 2020-21 will promote a global, year-long conversation about people power – the collective power of people acting together to drive social and political change. Due to the fact that people’s power is also facing unprecedented attack, this is the perfect moment for civil society activists, organizations and social movements to engage in a collective
Read more →In light of the ongoing pandemic, the Conference on the Future of Europe should be used to rethink and reform collectively Europe’s political, economic and social moxdels. If the EU does not take the lead now, others could step in to set their own standards and rules instead. COVID-19 has already prompted a dramatically different
Read more →In the context of the fight against the pandemic, the Standing Committee of the Conference of INGOs expressed its strong commitment to the construction of a diverse and open society, based on human rights, the rule of law and meaningful democratic participation. The statement emphasize that NGOs fulfil a fundamental role in checking the emergency
Read more →CROSOL and CONCORD sent a letter to Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlic Radman ahead of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council presenting the recommendations by CSOs across the EU regarding the Union’ response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The letter states that solidarity must continue to be a guiding principle
Read more →In a letter of concern, Access Info called Montenegro’s Ministry of Public Administration to postpone a public consultation on reforms to the Law on Free Access to Information that occurred during the first week of April 2020. The letter indicates that the public consultation comes just at a time when people are confined to their
Read more →As the global standard‑setter for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation, the FATF encourages governments to work with financial institutions and other businesses to use the flexibility built into the FATF’s risk-based approach to address the challenges posed by COVID-19 whilst remaining alert to new and emerging illicit finance risks. The
Read more →Launched by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Tracker 19 is a tool made for an unprecedented global crisis. Created in reference not only to Covid-19 but also article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the project aims to evaluate the pandemic’s impacts on journalism. It will document state censorship and deliberate disinformation, and their
Read more →Civil Rights Defenders announced the release of the Internet Freedoms in the Western Balkan Region report. Developed in cooperation with the SHARE Foundation, the report presents in-depth research on the state of internet freedoms in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania. It provides a comparative overview of specific indicators – according to the European
Read more →Due to the global pandemic caused by COVID 19, Trag Foundation created a program to support the solidarity among the united citizens by relying on their capacities, taking into account the safety and health in the community. It is expected the implemented actions to reduce the further spread of the virus, to help the most
Read more →In an interview for Global Standard for CSO accountability, the MCIC Project Officer Aleksandra Savevska explained how BCSDN’s member from North Macedonia, MCIC is implementing the Global Standard for CSO Accountability. Through the Program on Sustainable Civil Society – State Funding of CSOs, a EU- funded multi-year program aimed at fostering an enabling environment for
Read more →The Resilient Roots (RR) initiative examines whether organizations who are accountable to their primary constituents, that is, the individuals and communities they support and serve, are better able to withstand external threats related to closing civic space. The first case study looked at three dimensions of accountability (giving, taking, and holding to account) and provided
Read more →CSOs, big and small, global and local, are ‘system-relevant’ – it matters to millions of people that they remain operational and support the most vulnerable and their environment. It comes as no surprise that the SDG principle to ‘Leave no one behind’ has become a unifying theme of solidarity in response to the Coronavirus around
Read more →