Call for Proposals: Human Rights and Democracy for Uzbekistan

Deadline: 19-Jul-24

The European Commission is accepting proposals to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law in Uzbekistan.

The action will achieve this by supporting and strengthening civil society organisations (CSOs), democracy activists and human-rights defenders working on critical human rights and democracy.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues 

• The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
  • Protecting and empowering of the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights;
  • Enhance the capacity of local CSOs to actively engage in promoting youth inclusion and empowerment, gender equality and women’s empowerment, media literacy, and environmental sustainability and climate change initiatives;
  • Safeguarding fundamental freedoms, including harnessing the opportunities and addressing the challenges of new technologies: to create and maintain an environment conducive to the full exercise of all fundamental freedoms, online and offline.
• The priority(ies) of this call for proposals are:
  • strengthening capacities of civil society, women and youth organisations in fighting against discrimination in all its forms and especially violence against women, and contributing to policy dialogue on gender equality and women’s rights and enabling the active participation and inclusive growth and decision-making through women empowerment.
  • strengthening capacities of civil society organisations to exercise fundamental freedoms, to promote and protect freedom of opinion and expression by ensuring transparency and accountability, as well as strengthening media and digital skills and countering hate speech in the media.
  • promotion of representation, participation and active engagement of youth in decisions-making and reform processes
  • promoting inclusion and respect of fundamental rights of members of vulnerable groups (refugees, minorities, persons with disabilities)
  • supporting freedom of expression, freedom of the media, unrestricted access to information and fight against disinformation, with respect to new and digital technologies
  • promoting awareness of human rights protection issues, encouraging a positive human rights discourse in the digital environment and countering negative trends (hate-speech, stigma, disinformation);
  • protection of and support for human-rights defenders

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 980,000.00 to be financed under 2023 budget and EUR 930,000.00 to be financed under 2024 budget.
• Size of grants 
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • minimum amount: EUR 300,000.00
    • maximum amount: EUR 400,000.00

Duration 

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.

Types of Activity 

• Activities should be designed to meet the specific needs of the target group(s) identified by the project. Any proposal should plan an adequate number of events and concrete deliverables (e.g., conferences, seminars, workshops, press events, publications, etc.) to ensure a wide dissemination of the action results.
• See below a non-exhaustive list of activities that should line up with potential actions described above (examples):
  • Human rights training, legal counselling, psychosocial, medical, legal and safety assistance
  • Monitoring and watchdog activities, including trial monitoring;
  • Supporting CSOs and the media in promoting accountability and transparency at national and local level;
  • Promoting greater contact and cooperation between civic and political actors, including by fostering mechanisms for structured dialogue;
  • Promoting the inclusion of women, young people, and other marginalised groups in formal and informal decision making structures;
  • Capacity building to help civic and political players develop responsive policy platforms that adequately represent the public interest, granting assistance to local registered and non-registered CSOs;
  • Awareness-raising and communication campaigns on specific human-rights issues
  • Conflict resolution and mediation activities;
  • Promoting inclusive and strategic partnerships, networking and cooperation with CSOs and other relevant stakeholders or among CSOs;
  • Promoting the inclusion of women, youth, and other marginalised groups into formal and informal decision making structures, including the political party system.

Location 

• Actions must take place in the following country: Republic of Uzbekistan.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s) 
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person or an entity without legal personality or a natural person and
    • be non-profit-making and
    • be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental civil society organisation (international and inter-governmental organisations are not eligible under this call) and
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Uzbekistan or in any other territory as no nationality restrictions applies to applicants,
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary
• Co-applicant(s) 
  • Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator).
• Affiliated entities 
  • The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
  • Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
    • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
    • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
      • Control on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
        • Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
          • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
          • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
          • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
      • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association) as the proposed affiliated entities.

For more information, visit EC.