Global Proposals (2020) European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights

Deadline: 20-Nov-20

The European Union (EU) has launched a Global Proposals for the 2020 European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), to support civil society to become an effective force for political reform and defence of human rights.

In doing this, it complements both geographical programmes that focus on public institution-building as well as other thematic programmes, such as the CSO-LA programme. This Global Call seeks to innovate by testing different ways that CSO-led initiatives at proximity to countries at risk might contribute to the more effective prevention of shrinking space.

Beyond their impact in the countries concerned, the resulting projects will add experience towards a coherent EU approach to support civil society, other civic actors, and the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms by all citizens.

The European Union (EU) is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. Human Rights and democracy are important areas of EU co-operation, and activities in this sector are supported through a number of instruments.

Objectives

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to support and empower civil society in protecting and promoting democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms worldwide.
• The specific objective of this call for proposals is to pilot a multi-country resource hub, focused on addressing the dynamics (shrinking, opening) of civic, democratic and civil society space. It should support civil society working on human rights and democracy and other actors to steer change towards greater respect for fundamental freedoms, civic engagement and democratic governance and to elicit a more effective development process at the national level.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Engage long- and medium-term drivers of civic space dynamics according to specific country contexts;
• Offer programmes of capacity building, networking and exchange for human rights defenders and related civil society (including with other stakeholders as appropriate) at a national level and/or with a multi-country or regional dimension;
• Counter the criminalization and defamation of civic actors and civil society;
• Develop and pilot multi-stakeholder response protocols for early action; maintain contacts/networks with national and international actors to assess opportunities for meaningful action; coordinate or mobilize measures at different levels as appropriate;
• Provide direct support (services and/or financial assistance) in case of sudden-onset changes or significant signals of change;
• Analyze trends and assess the dynamics of civic, democratic and civil society space.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 10,000,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds. Equally, this amount could be increased should more funds become available.

Indicative allocation of funds by lot:

• Lot 1 – Africa: EUR 2,500,000
• Lot 2 – Asia and the Pacific: EUR 2,500,000
• Lot 3 – Latin America and the Caribbean: EUR 2,500,000
• Lot 4 – Enlargement and Neighbourhood countries: EUR 2,500,000

Themes

Actions must focus on all of the following themes:

• Respect for civil society and civic space in national legislation and its enforcement in practice; as appropriate reclaiming liberties lost or compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Elevating or broadening the understanding of civic space as a basic element in achieving sustainable development within a stable political environment; recovering reputational damage to civic actors and active citizenship; raising the profile of shrinking space as a matter of political concern at national, regional and global levels;
• Resilience of civil society and civic actors to new and modern challenges, including but not limited to digital security, political polarization, and emergency measures linked to counter-terrorism, public health and other issues (also arising from COVID-19); diversification of financial resources available to civic actors and civil society in situations of closing space; digitalization of civic space and the online enjoyment of fundamental freedoms;
• Building bridges: encouraging coalition-building across sectors of civil society (between human rights and development sectors, social services), between “traditional” civil society and other forms of civic and social movements including youth activists, and between highly connected and more remote civil society, civic and community-based actors and human rights defenders, giving attention to the exceptional shrinking of space related to discrimination against certain groups or actors, exacerbating marginalization and inequality. Cooperation could also be supported between civil society and stakeholders beyond civil society including business, public services, national and regional entities (including National Human Rights Institutions); and between civil society and other socially minded professionals (artists, designers, journalists, IT experts, etc.) to strengthen and professionalize activities, including civic tech.

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 non-governmental civil society organization active in human rights and/or democracy work (please note that the Evaluation Committee will take into consideration the different legal forms of registration in the respective countries, for which the applicant should attach a justification);
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicants and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.

Co-applicants(s)

• The lead applicant must act with at least one co-applicant as specified hereafter.
• To be eligible, an action must include at least two local organisations as lead applicant or 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 itself.
• 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 co-applicants:
  • 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, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU 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 an 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, etc.) as the proposed affiliated entities.

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