What's New

News and updates from BCSDN and the region

The Business Case for Civil Society

Now more than ever, businesses have strong incentives to take seriously their responsibility to respect human rights. Human rights developments can spark stock price fluctuations, negative consumer attitudes and loud employee demands to take action. In developing their human rights policies and processes, companies have come to depend upon civic freedoms that enable civil society

Read more →

International Human Rights Standards and Good Practices in Policing Assemblies in Western Balkans

Challenges and good practices in ensuring human rights-compliant assembly policing in the Western Balkans region and related available resources were explored and presented at an event in Warsaw on 17 September 2018, during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. Some 40 representatives of civil society and state bodies took part in the event, which was organized

Read more →

Philanthropy Council Established in Serbia

A Philanthropy Council was established in Serbia in order to create an enabling environment for providing charity and further development of philanthropic infrastructure and culture of giving for the common good in the Republic of Serbia, taking into account the current situation and trends in giving in the society. The council was formed on the

Read more →

Change for Sustainability – CSOs in Macedonia Request Changes in the Law on Accounting for Non-Profit Organizations

The Law on Accounting for Non-Profit Organizations prescribes the accounting principles and rules for CSOs, as well as the basic financial information reported by the civil society organizations. 15 years after its adoption in and implementation in Macedonia, a need for changes has been established. The identified needs have been presented in details in the

Read more →

Serbian CSOs Request Withdrawal of the Draft Law on Amendments on the Law on Social Protection

Civil Society organizations in Serbia have launched an initiative requesting the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs to withdraw the existing Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Social Protection and to initiate new process of legislative changes, raising several concerns over human rights violation, undermining of interests of beneficiaries and inconsistencies

Read more →

New National Strategy for the Creation of An Enabling Environment for the Civil Society Development is Being Prepared in Croatia

The process of drafting a new National Strategy for Creating an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development for the period 2017-2021 is ongoing in Croatia. Four public hearings have been held in Rijeka, Split, Osijek, and Zagreb since April 2016 with the aim of obtaining feedback from civil society organizations on the obstacles and challenges

Read more →

Public Reaction by Macedonian CSOs on Initiative from the Blueprint on Urgent Democratic Reforms for the Amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Parties

Think tanks and CSOs, from Macedonia, involved in the developing the Blueprint on urgent democratic reforms issued a public reaction on the recent adoption of the Amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Parties. They point to several key shortcomings and problems: the lack of transparency and involvement of the key stakeholders and the

Read more →

Romania: New Legislative Proposal ‘Plesoianu Proposal’

The so-called Plesoianu Proposal, aimed at changing radically Governmental Ordinance 26/2000 regulating associations and foundations, has met strong rejection by CSOs in the last 2 years. After having been approved by the Senate, the proposal is now before the Chamber of Deputies. Taking into consideration the reaction of CSOs, Plesoianu has drafted some amendments to

Read more →