In the framework of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) a Call for proposals has published to strengthen the capacity of CSOs for more effective action in the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Turkey. The Call is divided into two lots: 1) Strengthening civil society’s involvement in the making, implementation and monitoring of human rights policies at local and national levels and supporting human right defenders; and 2) Promotion and protection of human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The overall indicative amount made available is EUR 5.000.000 (EUR 3.000.000 for Lot 1,…
Author: anja
A Call for proposals has been opened under the Interreg Cooperation Program Slovenia-Croatia 2014-2020 for co-financing operations that effectively contribute to the overall aim of the program: to promote a sustainable, safe and resonant border area by adopting smart approaches to conservation, mobilization and management of natural and cultural resources for the benefit of people who live and work in the area. The Priority Axis supported with this Call are: 2) Conservation and sustainable use of natural and cultural resources, and 3) A healthy, safe and accessible border areas. The European Regional Development Fund has made available an amount of…
On 26th-27th January representatives of FPA project partners met in Brussels to discuss sustainability of their actions and to brainstorm about recommendations to DG NEAR for supporting the sustainability of project outcomes. The conference, organized by the TACSO Regional Office, was attended by representatives of DG NEAR and around 85 representatives of CSOs participating in the 18 FPA projects. During the first part of the conference brief sustainability overview was presented for each project. Our project manager, Ilina Neshikj presented the key outcomes from the Balkan Civil Society Acquis project, and the main possibilities and obstacles to achieve sustainability. The…
The FP7 project in which BCSDN is partner in – “Maximizing the integration capacity of the EU” – MAXCAP had its final conference from 22-23 January 2016 in The Hague. The conference was organized by one of the MAXCAP co-coordinating partners, the Leiden University’s Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. The conference brought together prominent academics, policy makers, civil society representatives and the broader public to discuss and reflect on the key findings on the effects and prospects of EU enlargement and discuss their policy implication across member states and enlargement countries. The conference was organized in four thematic sessions,…
During the night between 21st and 22nd of January, unknown attackers have broken the windows of the Human Rights House (HRH) Belgrade. HRH reminds the public that attacks have been increasingly happening in Serbia towards representatives of institutions that are critical of the Government, representatives of the opposition parties, and now even human rights organizations. This attack takes place at a time when the election of members of the Council of the regulatory body for electronic media which was proposed by civil society is violently and illegally annulled and when repressive laws on assembly and public peace have been passed,…
A new alliance of the top international charities, human rights campaigners, women’s rights groups, green groups, civil society organisations has been formed during the World Economic Forum in Davos. Along with ActionAid, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace and the International Trade Union Confederation, the new alliance has issued a joint statement with a warning that progress on development, environment, women’s rights and human rights are hampered due to growing inequality. Bringing together powerful global networks and campaigning capacity, the organizations are committed to working together to fight for changes to tackle inequality globally and in countries across the world, and to…
On 25th January in Brussels, BCSDN organized a meeting with European Commission’s officials working on civil society in Enlargement and Neighbourhood countries with the aim to share its experience with monitoring the enabling environment in practice. Tina Divjak, BCSDN Board member, presented to the EC officials the Monitoring Matrix methodology and its complementarity with the EC Guidelines for Support to Civil Society. The purpose of this training was to build a common understanding about the scope and content of CSO enabling environment (EE) and indicators that can define it, but also it aimed to get overview of the EE monitoring…
Within the efforts to strengthen the capacity of local CSOs for monitoring and advocacy, two organizations from Serbia have developed policy papers in the area of transparent funding, with the support of the Balkan Public Policy Fund (BPPF), implemented by BCSDN and its partners (Civic Initiatives in Serbia). The Centre for Development of a Democratic Society – Europolis published the analysis “Line 481 – To improve the processes of monitoring and evaluation”, aiming to address the need for increased transparency of state funds distribution to the CSOs, as well as for more efficient and appropriate spending. The other policy paper…
In Macedonia, within the Balkan Public Policy Fund, the civic association Konekt prepared an analysis of the public policies related to the environment for employment in CSOs. On 21st January, 2016, in the premises of Public Room, Skopje, the results of the analysis were publicly presented in front of more than 50 representatives of civil society. The analysis, entitled “CSOs – An Invisible Employer”, provides a review of two key aspects of civil society as an employer: 1) the legal framework in the area of labor relations; and 2) the policies for encouraging employment, especially the active employment measures and…
78 CSOs from Macedonia addressed a letter to the whole international community requiring the implementation of genuine reforms as they are preconditions for free and fair elections. CSOs emphasized that, albeit the European Commission’s requirement from Macedonian authorities for fulfilling the urgent reform priorities and the experts’ recommendations that should have guaranteed free and fair elections, the situation has not improved at all. Furthermore, they highlighted that it is the addressees who called upon respect of basic EU values as a precondition for overcoming the political crisis in Macedonia. Taking into consideration the latter, CSOs asked the addressees to be…