Deadline: 29-Jun-21
European Commission is calling for proposals for European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) to support a Civil Society through Country-Based Support Schemes in North Macedonia.
Objectives
- The global objective of this call for proposals is: to support and strengthen civil society organisations, democracy activists and human rights defenders working on critical human rights and democracy issues in third countries.
- The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals are:
- Support to human rights and human rights defenders most at risk
- Support to other EU human rights priorities in line with the set of EU human rights guidelines adopted by the Council of the European Union
Priorities
The priorities of this call for proposals are:
- Raise awareness about respect of human rights by empowering citizens: support to human rights defenders and their legal representatives, work to ensure positive recognition of the important role they play. Raise individual cases related inter alia to labour rights, natural resources, environmental issues, climate change, and those resulting from corporate abuses. Combat all forms of discrimination including on grounds of sex, race, ethnic or social origin, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Promote measures to prevent, combat and respond to all forms of violence against children and women. Support fight against torture/ill treatment. Promote inter-religious and inter-ethnic dialogue between relevant stakeholders, aimed to protect human rights, promote reconciliation and tolerance.
- Assist state authorities in developing and implementing laws, regulations and policies through the lens of human rights: curb inequalities by promoting non-discriminatory access to social services, including quality and affordable healthcare and education (also online), and build practitioners’ capacity to respond to the specific needs of women, men, LGBTI persons, children, persons with disabilities, migrants, refugees and people in vulnerable situations. Assist partner countries in building and strengthening child protection systems and respect of child rights. Promote free access to information. Promote decent work and a human-centred future of work through an updated EU approach ensuring the respect of fundamental principles and rights at work, the right to safe and healthy working conditions, and a world of work free of violence and harassment. Stimulating both authorities and citizens to respect current and future generations’ rights to a clean environment. Support the separation of powers, independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the efficiency, quality and accountability of the justice system and constitutional safeguards. Support fight against torture/ill treatment. Provide comprehensive assistance to prevent and fight against corruption by supporting public administration reform, effective anti-corruption strategies and legal frameworks, including whistle-blowers protection, specialised bodies, parliaments, independent media and civil society, etc. Support implementation of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention and of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- New technologies: harnessing opportunities and addressing challenges: Examine regulatory and non-regulatory approaches to ICT as regards promotion of human rights and democracy. Foster international/EU best practice exchanges on human rights compliant tech regulation. Provide capacity-building and other support to enable national authorities to develop and implement relevant international standards effectively in the online space (e.g. protection of children, disinformation, etc.). Support efforts to protect freedom of expression, media freedom and pluralism in the online environment. Promote the accessibility of technologies for everyone, including persons with disabilities, already at the design stage of new technologies covering all sectors including education. Develop and refine electoral observation methodology to monitor and assess the use of social media and other digital technologies during election campaigns against international standards, in order to prepare for and pre-empt attempts to distort elections. Support the development of policy frameworks that apply offline rules on elections and democratic processes to the online context, and assist to build capacities to implement them. Build on the EU’s own efforts in this regard, including the action plan against disinformation, the Commission’s electoral package, the code of practice on disinformation and the European Democracy Action Plan.
Funding Information
- The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 700,000.
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
- minimum amount: EUR 90,000
- maximum amount: EUR 200,000.
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
- Minimum percentage: 60% of the total eligible costs of the action.
- Maximum percentage: 95% of the total eligible costs of the action.
Eligibility Criteria
Lead applicant
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- be a legal person
- be non-profit-making
- be a specific type of organisation such as: civil society organisations
- be established in the Republic of North Macedonia
- 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)
- 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.
- 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-applicants 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, 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).
- Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
- 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.
- Control, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
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