News and updates from BCSDN and the region
International Visegrad Fund is currently inviting applications for its Visegrad Grants to support regional partnerships among NGOs and civil society organizations, public institutions and municipalities, private companies and nonprofit organizations as well as education and research centers that contribute to cooperation in the Visegrad region. Grants can cover up to 100% of project budget with
Read more →The newly established fund Civitates has announced its first call focused on encouraging CSOs from EU member states and EFTA countries to come together and create national coalitions to address issues related to the shrinking space for civil society in their country. Civitates aims to strengthen civil society by empowering its actors to respond collectively
Read more →Each year the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) makes direct grants to hundreds of CSOs worldwide working to advance democratic goals and strengthen democratic institutions. NED is interested in proposals from local, independent organizations for nonpartisan programs that seek to: Promote and defend human rights and the rule of law; Support freedom of information and
Read more →Civil society and the ability to exercise the core civic space freedoms have been under threat for many years. This challenge has been the focus of much study and diagnosis. The more complex question, however, is what can be done in response. In late 2016, the Government of Sweden commissioned the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Read more →The European Union will deploy a new financial weapon next week to try to rein in what Brussels sees as illiberal nationalism rising in the east of the bloc and threatening its democratic foundations. A big electoral triumph on April 8 for Victor Orban in Hungary and a battle to save the independence of courts
Read more →Pressed to defend their very existence, civic groups and their supporters face a question they often neglected in earlier, less hostile times—from where does civil society derive its legitimacy? Or more bluntly, how is legitimacy earned? In donor and policy debates, two ideas repeatedly re-surface—that civic groups need to develop wider constituencies and more local
Read more →In recent months, Turkey has continued to experience serious violations of freedom of expression. The government has mainly relied on the legal system to target anyone who expresses critical opinions, including journalists, teachers, academics and others. Online spaces for dissent have been under attack since Turkey’s failed coup in July 2016, and hundreds of people
Read more →From attacks on human rights defenders to limits on civil society’s work, we are facing an emergency on civic space. Many of the current restrictions on civil society are knee-jerk responses, sometimes pre-emptive, to popular mobilizations, a sad and unexpected result of the initial hope of the so-called Arab Spring. Of course, this pattern is
Read more →Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize societies in positive ways. However, as with any scientific or technological advancement, there is a real risk that the use of new tools by states or corporations will have a negative impact on human rights. While AI impacts a plethora of rights, ARTICLE 19 and Privacy International
Read more →On 15 May, the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the international network founded by Hungarian-born financier George Soros to support civil society around the world, has officially announced the closure of its operations in the Hungarian capital. Faced with what it describes as an increasingly repressive political and legal environment in Hungary, the Open Society Foundations
Read more →Regional cooperation in the Western Balkans has demonstrated its viability in the last two decades. In the initial phase, international support was the key factor inducing the re-establishment of regional connections. Since the transfer of ownership from internationally-led structures towards the regionally owned ones began in 2008, the flourishing of regional initiatives, networks, task forces,
Read more →We live in a world of major geopolitical shifts and life-changing technological innovations. It’s fair to wonder, then, what our biggest hopes are for society in the coming decades. It’s certain that the world has become a better place, according to nearly every measure of human well-being, and yet there is a need to acknowledge
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