News and updates from BCSDN and the region
On 24 February 2021, together with the CSOs representatives, the Commission of Legal Issues, Public Administration, and Human Rights of the Assembly of Albania organized a hearing session on the draft law “On the registration of Non for Profit Organizations”. Even though CSOs positively welcomed the new law initiative, they noted that the process was
Read more →The Resource Centre for Civil Society in Montenegro presents the report on the citizens’ views about NGOs in Montenegro. The first chapter introduces the findings on the familiarity with NGOs’ work and citizens’ sentiment towards them. In the second chapter, citizens’ sentiment is complemented by the level of public trust in NGOs and citizens’ specific
Read more →The recent ECNL briefer provides examples of how CSOs can oppose abuse or overregulation caused by anti-money laundering (AML), combating financing of terrorism (CFT), and counter-terrorism (CT) standards. Firstly, CSOs affected can provide information to the UN Special Rapporteur, which as a UN Human Rights Council Expert can request inquiry from the government and address
Read more →TUSEV, BCSDN member from Turkey, with support from ECNL, published an information note on the policies and safeguards suggested by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) against terrorist financing, money laundering, and financing of weapons of mass destruction and discusses their impact on civil society operations in Turkey. The Law on the Prevention of Financing
Read more →The coronavirus tested civic freedoms and democracy after the governments worldwide implemented unprecedented actions, including curfews, restricting people’s movements, and limiting or banning gathering, narrowing the civic space. The latest CIVICUS Monitor shows that while governments were restricting the fundamental freedoms under the guise of fighting the pandemic, civil society, on the other hand, intensified its response
Read more →Albanian Media Institute (AMI) identifies two main trends about hate speech in the Albanian media in their surveys and monitoring. The principal source of hate speech in the media results from politicians’ speech. Second, user-generated content is a rich source of hate speech, producing inflammatory comments against groups, and individuals, particularly in online media. Most
Read more →BCSDN member TUSEV contributed to Philanthropy Advocacy, a joint project by the European Foundation Center (EFC) and Dafne, which provides insights into philanthropy’s legal and fiscal landscape across Europe. The report for Turkey is, prepared and updated within the project, is one of the 40 country profiles which contain information such as requirements for registration,
Read more →Based on an analysis of the COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker data, in its latest publication ECNL presents the trends they observed in Europe during 2020. It focuses on three essential points: Legislative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected civic freedoms; Measures implemented in practice and incidents that occurred under the pretext of battling COVID-19;
Read more →The Law on Preventing Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Turkey entered into force on 31 December 2020, after was approved by the Parliament without public debate. It predicts changes in 6 different laws, including the Law on Collection of Aid and Law on Associations, which will increase control over aid collection
Read more →After Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering in Serbia has compiled a list of CSOs, media, and individuals requesting the banks to inspect their transactions in the last year, activating the law’s mechanism to investigate their possible participation in “money laundering” or terrorist financing, ECNL provided assistance to CSO to confront AML/CFT limitations and
Read more →With a team of experts, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) assessed North Macedonia’s crisis management response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The first segment of the assessment overviews the strategic framework in which the crisis management response system operates and analyzes the existing institutional and legal environment governing crisis management. The second segment is focused on
Read more →As a follow up to the ECNL-ICNL briefer on the measures targeting civil society actors working on climate justice, ECNL presents a paper on how government restrictions deter activists and groups from participating in decision-making processes on climate and environmental issues meaningfully. Focusing on Slovenia and Ireland examples illustrates how governments, through legislative efforts, hinder
Read more →