Deadline: 15-Jan-22
The Tbilisi Shelter City program, with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia and the National Endowment for Democracy has announced an open call for human rights defenders from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Russian Federation and Armenia to apply for participation in the next enrollment of the Tbilisi Shelter City project.
The Tbilisi Shelter City will also accept applications for the limited number of places from the countries of Europe, where situation with human rights significantly deteriorated recently or in relation to the certain groups of HRDs (e.g. feminist activists, HRDs protecting migrants or LBTIQ community), namely: Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Tbilisi Shelter City program is aimed at temporal relocation to a safe place (Tbilisi, Batumi and Telavi in Georgia), and creating conditions for the professional development and psychological recovery of human rights defenders. It is also designed to reduce risks and help human rights defenders leave an unsafe environment for a while.
The program is designed to provide a 3-month relocation, during which the human rights defender is provided with accommodation in a safe place, per diems, receives opportunities for education and skill development, acquiring new professional contacts, and if necessary, he or she is provided with psychological and medical assistance.
Components
In particular, the program includes the following components:
- Training: security, advocacy, project writing, international instruments for the protection of human rights, etc.
- Exchange of experience with Georgian NGOs and studying best [practices of reforms in Georgia;
- Skills development: driving lessons, English courses, First Aid training;
- Public speeches, interviews, communication with colleagues from other countries of the region and EU countries;
At the end of the program, it is expected that participants will be able to return to their home country and continue their professional work.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications are accepted from human rights defenders in the broad sense of the term (including civic activists, employees of nonprofit organizations, lawyers, journalists, cultural figures, researchers and teachers whose professional activities are related to human rights).
- TSC mandate does not cover political activists.
- The stay of the human rights defenders in Shelter should help to overcome their risks, safety related issues and / or to prevent burnout and injury.
- The human rights defender has to live and work in the countries.
- The human rights defender should be ready and willing to participate in all educational activities provided for by the program.
- The human rights defender should be ready and willing to participate in the three-month program on their own. Only in exceptional cases, it is possible to participate together with the closest family members.
For more information, visit http://shelter.ge/page16706468.html
