News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Despite a number of historic legal successes in recent years, organizations advocating for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals continue to face monumental challenges in their attempts to exercise their fundamental rights to assemble, associate and express themselves. Such challenges are particularly formidable when they come in the form of
Read more →The CEU Center for European Neighborhood Studies (CENS) and the Andrássy University (AUB) are organizing the regional conference “Regional Cooperation and Regional Identity in the Western Balkans: Similarities and Differences” in Budapest. Maintaining good neighborly relations and participating in regional cooperation, as explicit conditions for progress towards EU integration, is one of the most efficient
Read more →Research on European integration tends to assume that a larger membership weakens the legal system of the European Union (EU) through growing non-compliance with EU law. The main compliance theories expect this negative impact to be particularly salient if Enlargement adds new members that are big, poor, Eurosceptic, or have inefficient bureaucracies. Against these expectations,
Read more →TACSO Macedonia and MCIC (TACSO Resource Center) are organizing a training on “Public Relations for CSOs” from 8-10 June 2016 in Skopje. The training aims to contribute to increasing the knowledge and skills of elected representatives of CSOs in Macedonia on how to improve the image of their organizations and to develop public relations and
Read more →The application process for this year’s “Balkans, Let’s Get Up!” program invites young people, aged 18-27 years, to participate in the educational programme intended for empowerment of young people for active and responsible participation in society, and to contribute to society with a civic initiative. The program consists of three parts: 1) Summer school on “How
Read more →Within the framework of the Western Balkans CSOs for Global Development program, Pontis Foundation and Institute for Democracy and Mediation announce a call for research proposals in the area of global development agenda in the context of Albanian policies, in particular development cooperation policy and awareness raising. The main goal of the proposed activities is
Read more →OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) supports initiatives aimed at enhancing livelihoods by addressing challenges in areas such as education, energy poverty, food security, public health, water supply and sanitation, which may not be directly funded through other financing windows. OFID’s grant program includes technical assistance for small-scale social schemes, sponsorship for research and other
Read more →Within the framework of the “In Your Focus” project, a program for support of local print and online media through allocation of small grants has been announced. The aim of the “In Your Focus” project is to contribute to improving the capacity of local journalists and media to produce investigative stories with the cooperation and support of
Read more →In April 2016, the National Assembly of Slovenia passed the amendment on the Law on Administrative Taxes, according to which all public benefit organizations (PBOs) are now exempt from all administrative taxes. During August 2015, the Ministry of Public Administration drafted amendments to the Law on Administrative Taxes, with which associations, charities, foundations and institutions
Read more →On 9th May, more than 500 civil society activists came to St. Mark’s Square in Zagreb to urge the government to preserve the Croatian model for support to civil society development. Representatives of the “For Strong Civil Society!” initiative emphasized that the aim of the massive gathering is to attack the public institutions and the
Read more →Civil Society Europe and its working group on Civil Society Recognition has prepared an online questionnaire on an assessment of civil dialogue mechanisms open for both European and national NGOs and associations. The responses to the questionnaire as well as the results of interviews with CSOs and EU institutions will contribute to the preparation of
Read more →The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Committee on NGOs (the Committee) considers applications by NGOs for ECOSOC accreditation and, as such, is a key gateway for CSOs to gain access to the UN. However, the Committee operates in a highly politicised manner, in particular regarding applications for accreditation from human rights organisations. The Committee
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