Call for Proposals: Support of Human Rights in Lebanon

Deadline: 26-Apr-24

The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Lebanon.

Objectives

• Specific objective 1 – Protecting and empowering individuals: to contribute to the full enjoyment by every one of all human rights, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural rights;
• Specific objective 2 – 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.

Priorities

• The priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Lot 1: Enhance access to fundamental rights of people deprived from liberty Priority areas of intervention:
    • Collaboration, cooperation and coordination to strengthen the network of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and other stakeholders working on Human Rights, including in the justice sector, the National Human Rights Commission and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture;
    • Production of expertise that inform evidence-based recommendations to decision-makers, advocacy and lobbying;
    • Enhancing access to justice for people deprived from liberty, including capacity building, legal aid and actions to improve service delivery in detention, in line with the Nelson Mandela rules.
  • Lot 2: Promote children’s rights and prevent all forms of violence against children Priority areas of intervention:
    • Advocacy to enhance the knowledge on the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC);
    • Production of expertise that inform evidence-based recommendations to decision-makers, including the Higher Council for Childhood to identify the issues that are most important to children, to hear their views on those issues and to find out how effectively their voices are heard in family decisions affecting them;
    • Strengthening the national dialogue with the relevant religious communities and civil society organizations with a view to align the different personal status and inheritance codes applicable to children in line with the CRC;
  • Lot 3: Countering the misuse and abuse of digital and new technologies Priority areas of intervention:
    • Analysis and monitoring of Lebanon’s digital transformation to ensure alignment with international standards;
    • Strengthening public awareness and inclusive debates on the regulation and use of new technologies, media literacy and countering misinformation, in particular Law 81 on Electronic Transactions and Personal Data and Human Rights;
    • Effective protection of – and support to – journalists, bloggers and other media workers through enhanced awareness of journalists’ safety and security (actions may entail activities to strengthen protection and well-being, referral and follow-up mechanisms in case of violations, legal aid and strategic litigations);
    • Implementation of innovative online tools, especially targeting youth.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3,950,000.00 The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Size of grants
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • Lot 1:
    • minimum amount: EUR 1,250,000.00
    • maximum amount: EUR 1,350,000.00
  • Lot 2:
    • minimum amount: EUR 1,200,000.00
    • maximum amount: EUR 1,300,000.00
  • Lot 3:
    • minimum amount: EUR 1,200,000.00
    • maximum amount: EUR 1,300,000.00

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 48 months.

Types of Activity

• advocacy, lobbying and development of strategies by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to push for legal reform, influence policy-making, or counter restrictions imposed by States on CSOs and other non-state actors;
• psychosocial, medical, and legal assistance and any other type of support;
• documenting – and reporting on – cases of human-rights violations;
• monitoring of – and reporting on – the implementation of the international human-rights instruments that the country has ratified;
• collection of appropriate information, including statistical and research data, to enable governments to draw up and implement policies.

Location

• Actions must take place in Lebanon.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • be non-profit-making and
    • be a Civil Society Organisation and,
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or in Lebanon and
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary
• Co-applicant(s)
  • The Lead Applicant must apply with at least two co-applicants. In order to foster coordination among civil society actors working on human rights at the regional, national and local level, applicants are encouraged to reach out to as many co-applicants as relevant given the nature of the action proposed. This may include forming consortia that may include local level and grass-root organisations, national NGOs, and/or existing coordination structures or networks. The choice of co-applicants should be based on their demonstrated complementary skills and proven experience in the specific area of intervention and in the country or region, and on their clear added-value to the action as a whole.
  • 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.
• 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 coapplicant(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.