News and updates from BCSDN and the region
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 →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 →Partners Albania published the 2017 country report for Albania based on the Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development. The 2017 report highlights the contradictory data…
Read more →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 →The 2018 Compendium of the Council of Europe Practice provides an overview of the measures taken by the CoE to guarantee the freedom of association and strengthen the position of CSOs. The report suggests that CoE bodies have carried out a variety of activities to strengthen freedom of association and ensure the crucial contributions of
Read more →CIVICUS, BCSDN, and MCIC have submitted joint UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) submission for Macedonia as one of the seven countries in advance of the 32nd UPR session in January 2019. The submissions examine the state of civil society in each country, including the promotion and protection of the rights to freedom of association, assembly
Read more →The Montenegrin Ministry of Public Administration has launched a public call for Non-Governmental Organizations to submit nominations for 6 NGO representatives in the Council for Cooperation of State Administration Bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations in Montenegro. More details about the call in Montenegrin are available here. Source: Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of
Read more →The Policy Brief produced by the European Policy Center Belgrade and Think for Europe Network aims to shed light on an insufficiently enabling, often even disabling, environment for the work of civil society organizations (CSOs) from the region. It does so by providing a comparative overview of CSOs involvement in the policymaking in different countries
Read more →Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TUSEV) published the Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development Turkey Country Report 2017, prepared in line with the Monitoring Matrix methodology. Developed under the Monitoring Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development Project coordinated by Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) through 2012 and 2016, the Monitoring Matrix
Read more →Access Info Europe and MANS called on the Montenegrin government to undo its 2017 amendments to Law on Free Access to Information (originally adopted in 2006) in order to bring it back into line with international standards. In an analysis of the Law, Access Info and MANS signaled that a particular concern is Article 1,
Read more →Partners Albania has prepared a monitoring report on the NPOs fiscal legal and regulatory framework and its implementation. Although the sector has been in operations for about three decades, its regulatory framework is still in development, marking very frequent changes, which often do not go through open consultative processes. The purpose of this paper is
Read more →In the Open Government Declaration, OGP countries pledge to protect CSOs in their pursuit to become more transparent, more accountable, and more responsive to their own citizens. CSOs are indispensable to fulfilling OGP’s vision of improved governance and improved quality of services. This chapter aims to support governments in their efforts to live up to
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