News and updates from BCSDN and the region
For the twentieth consecutive year, the 2016 CSO Sustainability Index for Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia reports on both the advances and setbacks in seven key dimensions affecting the sustainability of the civil society sectors in 24 countries in the region. A number of countries, including Hungary, Russia, and Macedonia, have experienced backsliding over
Read more →The conditions for freedom of expression in Serbia have considerably worsened around the country’s recent presidential election. In the last update for the CIVICUS Monitor, BCSDN as a research partner has detailed worrying examples of threats, harassment and intimidation being used to silence critical journalists and impair investigative reporting in Serbia. In particular, female media
Read more →CSOs inside the EU are facing a growing number of restrictions that limit their ability to perform their tasks. Put otherwise, the freedom or space available to CSOs to perform their role in protecting and promoting fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law is ‘shrinking’ or ‘closing’. These restrictions include: Smear campaigns, administrative harassment
Read more →Aid donors, governments and the UN have made many commitments to gender equality. Their actions have been less impressive. Across UN programmes, gender equality is vastly underfunded. When the UN Women agency was created in 2010, activists estimated that it needed at least a $1 billion budget (for comparison, total revenue for the children’s agency
Read more →BCSDN has published the fourth Monitoring Matrix Regional Report on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development in Enlargement Countries, presenting the regional state of play of civil…
Read more →The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) presented the 20th edition of their Civil Society Organization (CSO) Sustainability Index for Central and Eastern Europe and…
Read more →A G20 discussion paper on civil society advocacy has proposed an independent high-level commission of eminent persons to examine the contradictory policy environment for CSOs internationally. In many instances, state–civil society relations have worsened, leading experts to speak of a “shrinking space” for civil society nationally as well as internationally. The author proposes to initiate
Read more →People’s rights to organise, speak out and take action are being extensively violated in a large number of member countries of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The CIVICUS Monitor shows that the civic space is currently seriously restricted in 38 of 51 EITI countries, as of May 2017. CS0s and human rights defenders in
Read more →Coalizione Italiana Libertà e Diritti Civili (CILD) has created an easily accessible guide to contrast the media’s smear campaign against NGOs involved in migrant search and rescue operations. During recent months, CSOs and human rights defenders involved in search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean, and in providing assistance to migrants arriving in Italian ports,
Read more →Registrations are open for the International Civil Society Week (ICSW) 2017 in Suva, Fiji, from 4 to 8 December, hosted by CIVICUS and Pacific Island Association of NGOs (PIANGO). This year’s ICSW will address civil society issues related to the theme “Our planet. Our struggles. Our future.” and will feature more than 25 events organised
Read more →The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program is an international exchange program that offers democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world the opportunity to spend five months in residence at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in Washington, D.C., in order to undertake independent research on democracy in a particular country or region. Located
Read more →The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is seeking nominations for its “2017 Dr Erhard Busek-SEEMO Award for Better Understanding” in South, Eastern and Central Europe. Eligible to be nominated are journalists, editors, media executives, media experts, writers or journalism trainers in South, East and Central Europe, who have contributed to promoting better understanding in
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