News and updates from BCSDN and the region
We live in a world of major geopolitical shifts and life-changing technological innovations. It’s fair to wonder, then, what our biggest hopes are for society in the coming decades. It’s certain that the world has become a better place, according to nearly every measure of human well-being, and yet there is a need to acknowledge
Read more →The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — the most comprehensive regulation on the protection of personal data that currently exists — is scheduled to take effect on May 25. While companies who serve customers in the EU have to adhere, there are numerous applications for civil society, journalists, academia, philanthropy, and the private
Read more →For the 9th consecutive year, BCSDN has analyzed how the European Commission (EC) has treated the issue of civil society development and assessed the progress made in the Enlargement countries within the Enlargement Strategy and Country Reports 2018 that have been published recently, setting the analysis against BCSDN’s Monitoring Matrix. With clear language and a
Read more →On 24 April in Skopje, the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) presented the 2017 Report on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development in Macedonia, based on the Monitoring Matrix for Civil Society Development. The 2017 report analyzes the legislation and its practice by looking closely into the basic legally guaranteed freedoms, the framework for
Read more →On 16 April, the European Fund for the Balkans marked its 10th anniversary by publishing this Declaration which calls both EU and WB to use the positive momentum regained in 2018 and build an alliance for the future of Europe by setting the ground for more credible, open and sincere relationship that would result in
Read more →Some of the most influential CSOs from Montenegro suggested to the European Commission to “seriously consider” the activation of the balance clause, that is, to freeze negotiations on Montenegro’s membership with the EU. A paper prepared by Institut Alternativa, Center for Civic Education, the Center for development of NGOs (CRNVO) and the Center for Monitoring
Read more →Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party signaled it could push on with legislation to crack down on organizations promoting migrant rights as soon as parliament reconvenes after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s sweeping election victory on the 8th of April. A bill of the so-called “Stop Soros” package, submitted to parliament before the election, would impose a 25
Read more →In 2018, Nations in Transit registered the most score declines in the project’s 23-year history: 19 of the 29 countries had declines in their overall Democracy Scores. For the second year in a row, there are more Consolidated Authoritarian Regimes than Consolidated Democracies. While Serbia’s score declined for the fourth straight year, threatening its status
Read more →On 20 March, the Slovenian Parliament approved the new NGO Law. The new law, among other things, uniquely identifies NGOs and removes past confusion and dispersion in more than 20 laws, finally eliminating discrimination and enabling all non-governmental organizations to obtain the public benefit status under the same conditions, while also determining some basic measures
Read more →Routine extensions of the state of emergency in Turkey have led to profound human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people – from arbitrary deprivation of the right to work and to freedom of movement, to torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detentions and infringements of the rights to freedom of association and expression, according
Read more →Digitalisation is one of the key and most dynamic mega-trends influencing development today. The Romanian NGDO Platform – FOND together with CONCORD Europe are currently conducting a research on digitalisation and development with the aim to better understand how the future of development cooperation will be shaped in the digital era and to design possible
Read more →Development cooperation actors must ensure human rights-based approaches (HRBA) particularly in working to attain the SDGs or programmes and projects risk resulting to have grave and consequences including the loss of shelter, hindrances to livelihood opportunities, and health hazards – according to the latest report published by the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE). The
Read more →