Deadline: 16-Aug-2020
Under the framework of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, and its action on “Promotion of diversity and equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the Council of Europe is launching a call for proposals with the aim to fund concrete responses on combating discrimination, including discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and/or gender identity, combating hate speech, as well as protecting and promoting national minorities and their languages.
The purpose of the Action is improving the functioning of anti-discrimination mechanisms and their accessibility to vulnerable groups in line with European standards, especially with recommendations from CoE monitoring bodies, notably those from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and/or European Charter for Regional or Minority languages (ECRML).
Project partners include institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, Institution of Ombudsman for human rights, Agency for Gender equality, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for European Integration). Other partners include institutions in Republika Srpska (Ministry for European Integration and International Cooperation, Ministry of Justice), the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ministry of Justice, Government) and Brcko District as well as the European Union delegation in BiH, civil society organisations, local authorities and other relevant stakeholders.
In particular, it aims to:
- Support initiatives to harmonise the anti-discrimination framework across the country and to develop and implement the respective action plans/strategies in relation to national minorities, LGBTI rights and hate speech;
- Strengthen the capacity of the authorities, local governments and/or equality bodies in order to allow them to better tailor their interventions to address discrimination and increase cooperation among authorities in this field;
- Increase the knowledge and awareness of the general public about the existence and rights of national minorities, about the rights of LGBTI persons and about the dangers posed by hate speech, offering means to develop counter-narratives.
Objectives
The grants will fund activities aimed at supporting the concrete implementation and/or follow-up at local level of the recommendations) of the Council of Europe monitoring bodies in the field of anti-discrimination and protection of the rights of minorities and in particular the Advisory Committee of Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities (FCNM); the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Projects designed could address the following issues:
- Promotion and protection of national minorities’ rights in the local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina related to language, culture, education, media, administrative authorities, etc.
- Promotion and protection of the right of LGBTI persons in the local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina related to access to health and education, and in the area of media and administration, protection against hate speech and hate crime, etc.
- Combating hate speech and rumours in local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and creating counter narratives
- The indicative available budget under this call for proposals is 60.000 Euros (sixty thousand Euros). The European Union /the Council of Europe intends to award grants of a maximum amount of 10.000 Euros (ten thousand Euros) each.
- The implementation period of the projects should start on 01 October 2020 and shall not extend beyond 30 September 2021 (twelve months).
- Reporting requirements shall be completed on 31 October 2021 at the latest.
Target Stakeholders
- Local self-governments
- Civil society organisations
- National minorities and/or LGBTI people
- General population
Eligibility Criteria
- be legally constituted as a non-governmental organisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina or is a local selfgovernment;
- be entitled to carry out in Bosnia and Herzegovina activities described in its project proposal;
- have been active for at least three years in the field of human rights/anti-discrimination;
- have sufficient financial capacity (stable and sufficient sources of funding) to maintain its activity throughout the period for which the grant is awarded and to participate by way of its own resources (including human resources or in-kind contributions);
- have sufficient operational and professional capacity, including staff, to carry out activities described in its project proposal;
- have a bank account
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3hEwuw3