News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Aid donors, governments and the UN have made many commitments to gender equality. Their actions have been less impressive. Across UN programmes, gender equality is vastly underfunded. When the UN Women agency was created in 2010, activists estimated that it needed at least a $1 billion budget (for comparison, total revenue for the children’s agency
Read more →A G20 discussion paper on civil society advocacy has proposed an independent high-level commission of eminent persons to examine the contradictory policy environment for CSOs internationally. In many instances, state–civil society relations have worsened, leading experts to speak of a “shrinking space” for civil society nationally as well as internationally. The author proposes to initiate
Read more →People’s rights to organise, speak out and take action are being extensively violated in a large number of member countries of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The CIVICUS Monitor shows that the civic space is currently seriously restricted in 38 of 51 EITI countries, as of May 2017. CS0s and human rights defenders in
Read more →Coalizione Italiana Libertà e Diritti Civili (CILD) has created an easily accessible guide to contrast the media’s smear campaign against NGOs involved in migrant search and rescue operations. During recent months, CSOs and human rights defenders involved in search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean, and in providing assistance to migrants arriving in Italian ports,
Read more →Registrations are open for the International Civil Society Week (ICSW) 2017 in Suva, Fiji, from 4 to 8 December, hosted by CIVICUS and Pacific Island Association of NGOs (PIANGO). This year’s ICSW will address civil society issues related to the theme “Our planet. Our struggles. Our future.” and will feature more than 25 events organised
Read more →The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program is an international exchange program that offers democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world the opportunity to spend five months in residence at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in Washington, D.C., in order to undertake independent research on democracy in a particular country or region. Located
Read more →The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is seeking nominations for its “2017 Dr Erhard Busek-SEEMO Award for Better Understanding” in South, Eastern and Central Europe. Eligible to be nominated are journalists, editors, media executives, media experts, writers or journalism trainers in South, East and Central Europe, who have contributed to promoting better understanding in
Read more →The EU is currently accepting proposals for a National Resource Centre for CSOs in Macedonia to provide services to CSOs for their capacity building, trainings, information and generally to contribute to the improvement of their working standards and environment. The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 500.000 and will
Read more →The specific objective of this call for proposal is to support organizations active in the field of human rights, targeting principally, but not exclusively, actions under the following thematic priorities: Lot 1 – Prevention against risks of imprisonment/conflict with the law as well as assistance and rehabilitation for former prison inmates including strengthening linkages to
Read more →The example of decline of freedom of expression in Macedonia offers a lesson on how populist forces can subvert democracy and use its mechanisms to conduct state capture. Freedom of expression is a human right which enables implementation of all other human rights: if the people are unable to express themselves, then they cannot communicate
Read more →The Turkish crackdown has primarily targeted large American aid agencies, including Mercy Corps and the International Medical Corps, which were expelled from the country in March and April, respectively. But Turkish authorities have more recently ratcheted up pressure on Syrian aid workers, who have faced lengthy detentions and the threat of deportation to foreign countries,
Read more →As part of the project “Democracy in Progress: Shadow Progress Report on Political Copenhagen Criteria in Western Balkans EU Candidate States”, during May and June 2017 workshops were organized in Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, bringing together representatives of the main CSOs and supporting international organizations active in the field, to discuss the main problems of
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