News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Civil society needs a safe and enabling environment. That civic space has been shrinking in parts of Europe was widely documented even before the pandemic hit. The adoption this month by the European Parliament of the report on this theme is crucial in the current political environment that emphasizes the need for CSOs to act,
Read more →Youth civil society’s lack of confidence in formal power and rejection of traditional hierarchies has led it to rely on its own creativity and embeddedness within communities to be a powerful force for good. Without youth civil society, communities’ recovery from the pandemic to date would have undoubtedly been held back. Youth civil society has
Read more →Organizations gathered around the “Three Freedoms” Platform have expressed their concerns over the criminal prosecution of Youth Student Action`s activists and the “double standards” in the reaction of the authorities, while also noting that their protest is a direct consequence of deafening the institutions to the problems of citizens and preventing them from influencing decisions
Read more →Liberties have published its third report on the state of rule of law in the European Union. Comprised of an overview of trends and 17 individual country reports written by Liberties’ member and partner organizations, this comprehensive report vets how well member states are faring at protecting democracy, justice, and the rule of law. One
Read more →Supported through the USAID Civic Engagement Project, the first handbook on prevention of exposure of money laundering and financing terrorism was prepared by Konekt in cooperation with the European Centre for Not for profit Law and the RSM Financial Intelligence Unit. The handbook identifies potential risks for non-profits, which is the first step towards taking
Read more →Reaction published on the official website of BCSDN member organization Civic Initiatives strongly opposes the new strategy for civil society development, adopted by the Serbian government. The reaction states how the strategy, that foresees implementation until 2030 serves only to improve the government’s reputation before the international community, and not to substantially improve conditions for
Read more →Within the Make, it Easy project they are implementing, the Association for digital transformation Hub has launched eCrowd.mk – an online service that enables the collection of donations by non-profit legal entities registered under the Law on Citizens’ Associations and Foundations in North Macedonia. The main idea of the service is to improve the culture
Read more →Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL) has launched the CIVIC ALARM CLOCK – a competition for artists who want to raise the topic of civil liberties and the opportunity to associate, speak freely, protest. Over 733 illustrations, comics, photographs, poems, essays, short stories, journalistic materials, have already been submitted. The collected donations will award 12
Read more →The Civil society in Serbia has informed the domestic and international public that, due to the increasing frequency of human rights violations, CSOs will regularly monitor the election campaign in order to assess whether the upcoming elections are fulfilling the conditions to be called free, fair, and democratic. Three Freedoms platform announced consistent and regular
Read more →International Centre for Not for Profit Law has published a guide aiming to map out the scope of standards that protect the environmental activists’ rights to association, peaceful assembly, expression, and participation in decision-making, the type of restrictions that affect the space for environmental defenders and the mechanisms that they can use to enforce their
Read more →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
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