News and updates from BCSDN and the region
National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are an essential part of the country-level human rights protection system and have a pivotal role in navigating the everyday human rights challenges. The report marks such bodies in the EU and North Macedonia, Serbia, and the UK. It explores crucial developments, challenges to their effectiveness, and ways to maximize
Read more →The 2021 ICSC Innovation Report will be a timely look at civil society’s progress in furthering people-centered and nature-positive digitalization. It will highlight the most promising innovations by CSOs in producing solutions for digital inclusion, impact, and rights at scale, promoting progressive people-centered, nature-positive approaches and outcomes, and putting digital rights, ethical and sustainability values
Read more →According to the newest Global Perceptions Corruption Index published by Transparency International, public corruption perceptions worsened in most Southeast and Central European countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia were ranked worst in the Western Balkans, sharing 111th place within 180 countries. Serbia’s and Kosovo’s rankings also worsened compared to 2019. Croatia kept the same
Read more →As part of the Regional Civil Society Development Hub, BCSDN is calling for grants for organizations from the WB region, struggling with shrinking civic space in their country, facing pressure to the civic space, incidences of hate speech, hostile attacks, or want to react towards the changes of a law that affects their work, etc.
Read more →The Law on Preventing Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction adopted in Turkey entered into force on 31 December 2020, after it was passed by the Parliament. The Law is meant to be “in line” with international standards in the fight against the financing of terrorism and laundering offenses in light of the
Read more →Civil Society Europe is launching a Civil Society Convention on the future of Europe. Besides the events at local and national levels, an inter-institutional conference will be organized as a follow-up to the conference plenary. Considering the importance of the bottom-up involvement of citizens and CSOs at local and national levels, there is a direct
Read more →The events of 2020 stimulated the decline of civic freedoms. The implementation of restrictive legislation under COVID-19 and authoritarian governments’ rise contributed to a growth in restrictions on free speech, the right to protest peacefully, and other fundamental rights protected in international law. A global report by the CIVICUS Monitor presents many people living in closed,
Read more →Civil Rights Defenders trained young activists and leaders from the Western Balkans to influence the EU accession process and engage constructively with EU and national institutions. They have devised a programme that would encompass both policy-paper writing methods and advocacy activities for youth in WBT. The publication consists of various papers, where some of the
Read more →In our newsletter, we gladly present our accomplishments for 2020. It has been a year of unprecedented challenges, encouraging us to be more resilient and effective. We completed a full monitoring cycle and published comprehensive reports about the civil society operating environment in the Western Balkans and Turkey. With the Regional Civil Society Hub, we
Read more →Contribution from BCSDN has been integrated into the global Compilation of Carnegie Europe: Coronavirus as a Catalyst for Global Civil Society, where in the joint article “Filling Democracy’s Gaps in the Western Balkans”, our current and former Executive Directors Biljana Spasovska and Ilina Neshikj, speak about the challenges and achievements of the CSOs in the
Read more →CPDE published their Report to the Public 2018-2019, encompassing activities from 2018-2019, supported by two complementary programmes, “Development Partnerships on People’s Realities and Realisation of their Rights,” and “Enhancing Civil Society Role in Development Partnerships Post-2015.” During the past period, fighting the trend of shrinking civic space, CPDE has expanded the cooperation with different CSO.
Read more →We gladly present our Accountability campaign showcasing the challenges and the new opportunities with which CSOs were faced during unprecedented times. This campaign demonstrates the network’s engagement and deliverables and our members’ products on CSOs’ needs and response amid COVID-19. By presenting the stories of CSOs’ resilience, trust, and legitimacy, we invest in our mutual
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