News and updates from BCSDN and the region
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 →The Turkish authorities have ended the imposed “State of emergency”, after two years marred by continuous human rights violations committed under its authority. Amnesty International has launched a petition calling on the new Turkish government to put human rights back on the agenda. The petition lists five concrete steps the government should undertake to make
Read more →The UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF) is the annual process that convenes governments and other stakeholders including civil society organizations to review the implementation of the Sustainable Developments Goals which world leaders adopted three years ago. This year, the theme was “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies”. The CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness – CPDE,
Read more →The Spindle Awards 2018 that accelerate innovative initiatives in the field of humanitarian and development work this year will honor awards in four categories: Best Innovation for Development, Best Humanitarian Innovation, the NOW-Us! (NOthing about us, Without Us) Award and The Summer Labs / Best Idea for Development. The best participants of each category will
Read more →The Open Technology Fund (OTF) is seeking applications for its Internet Freedom Fund, a primary way to support projects and people working on open and accessible technology-centric projects that promote human rights, internet freedom, open societies, and help advance inclusive and safe access to global communications networks for at-risk users including journalists, human rights defenders,
Read more →The annual Global Perspectives gathering this year is titled Engaging a #NewGeneration and will take place from 31 October – 2 November 2018 in Berlin. The event is inviting leaders from key national and international CSOs, to be part of an exciting meeting with inspiring input, fruitful discussions and the chance for networking and peer
Read more →After successful first edition in 2017, the second edition of the Executive Program of the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF), which is being delivered in close collaboration with the College of Europe on “Civil society involvement in the EU accession process”, will be held on 22-24 October 2018, in Prishtina. The 3-day Executive Program targets
Read more →When the Member States of the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, they agreed that the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets should be met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. Governments and stakeholders negotiating the 2030 Agenda backed the ambition of leaving no one behind,
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 →At the London Summit of the Berlin Process that took place from 9-10 July 2018, representatives of the Civil Society Forum of the Western Balkans (CSF) presented 4 recommendations for the future of the Berlin Process: “additional progress” in rule of law to be included on top of the existing four goals of the Berlin
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