On the13th June, Tanja Hafner Ademi, the Executive Director, presented BCSDN’s Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for CSDev at the 29th Meeting of the Western Balkans(WB) Contact Group in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Members of the Contact Group, consisting of representatives of organized civil society (CSOs, trade unions and employers) in EU MS, confirmed the usefulness of such a mechanism and gave specific suggestions. Importance of improving cooperation between CSOs and social partners in the region was stressed, esp. on issues of common concern such as labor rights.The work undertaken with the matrix and following monitoring work…
Author: anja
On 31th May 2013, what started as a small peaceful demonstration over the plans to turn Gezi Park in Taksim Square, Istanbul into a shopping mall, turned into continues protest of citizens throughout Turkey. The police used disproportionate force over the peaceful demonstrators with use of tear gas and water cannons. Violations of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, such as blockage of social media and restriction to public space of citizens, have been reported. While monitoring these developments closely, we share concerns of our Turkish member organization Third Sector Foundation (TUSEV) that the excessive use of force against…
Civil protests that began as a reaction to the decision to build a shopping mall in the only green space in Taksim Square have been continuing nationwide. We regrettably follow the excessive use of force against protests in Turkey which disregards freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly that have been guaranteed by international human rights standards since May 31st, 2013. This process has shown us that; • The Law on Assembly and Demonstrations is far from answering the needs of the society. It should be amended immediately and the existence of peaceful demonstrations should be based…
BCSDN representatives, Tanja Hafner Ademi and Ilina Nesik participated in a 3-day formal launch of the “Maximizing the Integration Capacity of the EU: Lessons and Prospects for Enlargement and Beyond” (MAXCAP) project between 30th May and 1st June in Berlin, Germany. Besides discussing the activities and especially the theoretical framework, on which the forthcoming research in the next 30 months will be conducted, the kick-off featured a public event at the EU Representation in Berlin for broader audience. Some of the main threads of the discussion were about limits of the EU integration, different modes and strategies, the role of…
The Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations published their annual reports on the implementation of the Decree on the manner and procedure of conducting public discussion in preparing laws and the Decree on the manner and procedure of cooperation between state bodies and CSOs. The reports contain precise information concerning the way and extent of the cooperation between national authorities and non-governmental organizations in the past year. The information relates to how regularly and transparently authorities informed the public about their activities and in what way they allowed civil society to become involved in the drafting of laws and regulations…
After a 6 months inception period, the 18 projects (among them Balkan Civil Society Acquis-Strengthening the Advocacy and Monitoring Potential and Capacities of CSOs) presented their Strategies for work over the next 36 months at an Inception conference “EC and CSO Partners: Growing Together” held in Belgrade on 23 and 24 May. The conference brought together over 200 representatives of CSO (project partners) from the region and Europe and EC to discuss the work under each project and exchange so far lessons-learned in terms of resources, communication, networking and seek each other’s reviews of project strategies. BCSDN was present with…
After a 6 months inception period, the 18 projects (among them Balkan Civil Society Acquis-Strengthening the Advocacy and Monitoring Potential and Capacities of CSOs) presented their Strategies for work over the next 36 months at an Inception conference “EC and CSO Partners: Growing Together” held in Belgrade on 23 and 24 May. The conference brought together over 200 representatives of CSO (project partners) from the region and Europe and EC to discuss the work under each project and exchange so far lessons-learned in terms of resources, communication, networking and seek each other’s reviews of project strategies. BCSDN was present with…
Based on a request made by the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF), FOL movement, and Kosovo Democratic Institute, and supported by 55 other NGOs, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo has declared that provisions in the Law on Banks, Microfinance Institutions, and Non-Bank Financial Institutions which aimed at transforming microfinance NGOs into joint stock companies were unconstitutional. The law which was adopted on 12 April 2012 by the Assembly of Kosovo would consequently have transformed NGOs’ capital into private equity. Effectively funds received from donors would be transformed into the personal stock of whoever is running the NGO…
The Civil Society Promotion Center (CPCD) organized in Sarajevo kick-off event on the 14th of May, under the title: Monitoring matrix on enabling environment for civil society development. The event was attended by 30 participants, representatives of civil society organizations (22), government officials (4), and representatives from donors and international organizations (4). Participants were introduced to the overall BCSDN regional project as well as to the project activities which will be implemented in BiH. Special focus was put on the presentation of the basic and main characteristics of the Matrix.Mostly at the kick-off event’s comments and suggestions came from the…
The Civil Society Promotion Center (CPCD) organized in Sarajevo kick-off event on the 14th of May, under the title: Monitoring matrix on enabling environment for civil society development. The event was attended by 30 participants, representatives of civil society organizations (22), government officials (4), and representatives from donors and international organizations (4). Participants were introduced to the overall BCSDN regional project as well as to the project activities which will be implemented in BiH. Special focus was put on the presentation of the basic and main characteristics of the Matrix. The Civil Society Promotion Center (CPCD) organized in Sarajevo kick-off…