News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Covid-19 response is at present an all-consuming effort for governments and people in countries around the world. In a time of urgency, ICNL and ECNL offer a quick guide for authorities striving to protect lives in line with their duty to uphold human rights and protect human dignity, based on international human rights obligations. The
Read more →The coronavirus is a significant threat to public health; swift and effective government action is necessary. ICNL explores this tension and how governments can move quickly while upholding human rights in their response to a public health crisis. Governments can use a crisis as a pretext to infringe rights. In recent weeks, governments around the
Read more →Internet connectivity and use of forms of social media have become increasingly central to many aspects of organizing and exercising the right to freedom of peaceful assembly over the past decade. Over the same period, international bodies have regularly acknowledged the prominent role of the internet and the need to recognize that many of our
Read more →In the last several years, democracy indices have recorded that many EU governments have narrowed civic space. Authorities have used a wide range of tools to constrict the space for dissent and contestation; some of their tactics are blunt, others are more subtle. European civil society has begun to respond to the assault on civic
Read more →The main objective of the study is to analyze the current interaction, participation, and engagement patterns and mechanisms between public institutions and civil society. This is facilitated by focusing on the cooperation of CSOs with decision-makers in Parliament, central government (line ministries), local government, and independent institutions. The study finds that the legal and policy
Read more →Deliberative processes are one of the most innovative methods of fostering citizen participation in government. The OECD has collected a wealth of evidence as to how deliberative processes work across different countries. The analysis of the evidence collected reveals a number of common principles and good practices that may be of useful guidance to policy-makers
Read more →The issues in the publication, addressed by the mechanisms are concerned particularly with issues affecting civil society space (which is undergoing ever increasing pressure, partly attributable to efforts to counter terrorism, the impact of which on NGOs is not always taken into account), the criminalization of some of their legitimate activities, the problems faced by
Read more →Freedom House report monitors the situation in the areas of electoral process, political pluralism and participation, the functioning of government, freedom of expression and thought, the rule of law as well as fundamental freedoms. As stated in the report, 83 countries are ranked free, 63 as partially free, while 49 are free. This year, Serbia
Read more →Civic Space 2040 is a futurist initiative to craft a positive vision for civic space and map strategies to make it a reality. The initiative explores trends that will radically transform the world and discusses how they will impact civic space. ICNL launched the initiative in 2019 with a meeting at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio
Read more →Despite criticism from the CoE, OSCE, international media freedom organizations, the EU, local media and journalists’ organizations the assaults against the journalist and the implementation of controversial media laws continue. Precisely, Civicus Monitor reports that concerns continued. The Albanian President Ilir Meta returned the controversial media laws to Parliament for reconsideration. In particular, he highlighted
Read more →The Istanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court on 18 February acquitted 9 of the 16 suspects in the case into the Gezi Park protests of 2013. Businessman, philanthropist and human rights activist Osman Kavala is set to be freed. The suspects were being tried in the case into the Gezi Park protests, which took place in
Read more →At the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, several journalists were accused of spreading fake news in Montenegro. In early January 2020 police arrested and detained the editor-in-chief of FOS Media. A few days later, the editors of IN4S, and Borba, were detained by police, also. According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
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