News and updates from BCSDN and the region
International Civil Society Week (ICSW) is a gathering for civil society to engage in finding shared solutions to global challenges, create connections that bring about positive social change, share tools that enhance citizen action, and celebrate people power. Organized in partnership between CIVICUS and Civic Initiatives as a local host and BCSDN as a regional
Read more →The European Parliament and EU Council have agreed a pathbreaking piece of legislation that will help protect whistleblowers around Europe. The political agreement was reached in tough negotiations on 12 March, and is the first time that the EU will have dedicated legislation in this area. The proposed legislation will give much greater protections for
Read more →European governments are complicit in the systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Amnesty International in a report. Pushed to the edge: Violence and abuse against refugees and migrants along Balkan Route details how, by prioritizing border control over compliance
Read more →At the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) Policy Conference 2019 held in Beirut, CSOs tackled emerging issues surrounding development cooperation and affirmed their commitment to advocate for and contribute towards achieving development effectiveness. The discussions culminated in the adoption of an outcome document, the Beirut Declaration: Upholding Accountability, Building Solidarity for Effective, People-Centred Development. A
Read more →The EU enlargement process in the Western Balkans has fallen short of reproducing the transformative impact it had in Central and Eastern Europe. Solveig Richter and Natasha Wunsch point to state capture as the core obstacle to deep democratisation in the region and argue that EU conditionality not only fails to overcome detrimental governance patterns, but unintentionally contributes to
Read more →National and pan-European NGO platforms for development and relief, representing the current and upcoming EU Council Presidencies: FOND (Romania), Fingo (Finland), CROSOL (Croatia), and CONCORD (pan-European) joined forces to increase public support for a European Union which puts the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, development cooperation, human rights, and civil society space at the centre
Read more →Over 90 percent of Europeans surveyed in recent research by German think tank d|part and the Open Society European Policy Institute believe that the rule of law, pluralism, and the protection of individual rights are essential for a good society. As part of a collaborative project called Voices on Values, researchers asked more than 6,000
Read more →A Resolution on Women’s Rights in the Western Balkans has been adopted by a deliberate majority at a highly intense vote in the Gender Equality Committee of the European Parliament. The main author of the resolution and the Rapporteur of the European Parliament for Women’s Rights in the Western Balkans is the Croatian representative Biljana
Read more →A regional mapping has been produced for the project: “Communities First: Creation of a civil society hub to prevent and counter violent extremism”. The three-year project aims to empower CSOs in the Western Balkans, including women, youth, and faith-based organizations, to become more effective and accountable actors and to improve their capacity to implement projects
Read more →One of the signal events in global politics in the last decade has been the transformation of political and civic activism. Not only is the new activism qualitatively different in character from what it was in 2000; its intensity and frequency have dramatically increased. Activists are developing a new type of civic movement, applying innovative
Read more →The Balkan Civil Society Development Network is looking for a vibrant and creative individual to join our team in the Executive Office based in Skopje, Macedonia, in the capacity of a Communications Officer. The Communications Officer should have a strong interest and passion for civil society as well as knowledge and interest of regional civil society
Read more →The Hungarian government might soon be taken to the European Court of Justice if it does not address outstanding issues around the so-called NGO law. The Hungarian government has 60 days to reply to the concerns the European Commission brought up related to the so-called NGO law. The bill, referred to as the “Stop Soros
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