News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Partners Albania for Change and Development, our member organization from Albania, that has been one of the key actors advocating and leading the process for regulations of the VAT refund for CSOs in the country, has announced that the reimbursement has officially started. Namely, the General Directorate of Taxes has reimbursed four projects that have
Read more →In this handbook, published by the European Youth Forum, CSO representatives can find the keys to engaging in meaningful advocacy action: core concepts to be mastered, practical frameworks to be followed to plan actions, do’s and don’ts to avoid the most common mistakes and inspiring examples from the CSO sector. Read more here. Source: YFJ
Read more →USAID has supported the publication of a guideline manual for organizing virtual and hybrid events, aiming to help a wide range of entities to maintain a presence? and relevance in their field while adapting to the “new normal” brought by the COVID-19 pandemics. The guidelines offer practical tools and useful tips and tricks which will
Read more →The South Eastern Leadership for Development Initiative (SELDI) has published a policy document that estimates the state of civil society cooperation for good governance and explores the mechanism for a more effective mechanism for CSO cooperation in the good governance area. The document notes a key conclusion that funding needs to be complemented by indigenous,
Read more →Following the protest series occurring all over Serbia in December 2021 and Civic Initiatives’ announcement of a fundraising campaign for covering the fines of the citizens charged with misdemeanors, solidarity among community members of the community has proven to be very solid. At this point, Civic Initiates has received enough funding to cover the charges
Read more →A panel discussion titled “Unleashing the potential for change through civic movements and initiatives – What can the latest developments in Serbia tell us” organized by European Fund for the Balkans took place last week in Belgrade. According to the BiEPAG`s brief about civic movements and initiatives in the region, presented on this occasion, local
Read more →New research published by the International Centre for Not-for-profit Law explores the challenges for the non-profit sector, which has also been recognized by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a key global standard setter on AML/CFT issues. The research aims to better understand the driving forces of de-risking. It documents practices in relation to how
Read more →With the raise of the authoritarian regimes and their influences, the smear campaign against CSOs is also marking a raise. Having that and mind, and being guided by the idea of giving a practical mechanism for handling such narratives, Liberties has published a guide for progressive CSOs facing smear campaigns. This guide is meant to
Read more →The use of facial recognition technology in public spaces interferes with several fundamental rights, including the right to protest. But how does such technology work and what are the human rights standards in this field? What risks are commonly associated with FRT? What do the international human rights standards protecting assemblies say about FRT? ECNL
Read more →Nearly 800 cases of digital rights violations in eight countries of south-eastern Europe were recorded by BIRN and SHARE Foundation in the latest Annual Digital Rights Report 2021. Hate speech continues to thrive, journalists and vulnerable groups are systematically targeted in the online realm, and the presence of fake news does not decline. Similarly, political
Read more →The monitoring report for the Media Freedom Rapid Response has focused on summarising press and media freedom violations across EU Member States and Candidate Countries. From January until June 2021, 272 alerts have been documented, ranging from verbal attacks to legal incidents. 438 individuals or media entities in 26 countries have been subject to one
Read more →The Thomson Reuters Foundation has partnered with UNESCO, the International Women’s Media Foundation, and the International News Safety Institute to develop practical and legal tools for journalists, media managers and newsrooms to counter harassment. The Practical Guide for Women Journalists on How to Respond to Online Harassment and Checklist and Guidelines on Gender-Sensitive Safety Policies for Newsrooms address the
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