Deadline: 17-Apr-22
The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) is pleased to announce an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for a project to strengthen justice sector institutions to make them more transparent, independent, and accountable to their citizens.
DRL seeks proposals to enable civil society to improve participation, transparency, and inclusivity in filling vacancies for public prosecutors, attorneys and prosecutors general, judges, and other high authorities that compose the justice system (referred to throughout as “justice actors”).
Objectives
Proposals should aim to achieve the following objectives:
- increase accountability, transparency, and inclusive participation in the selection and election processes of justice system institutions;
- improve national-level compliance with international standards for the selection of justice actors; and
- increase visibility of national democratic processes to raise citizen awareness of the direct impacts these processes have on their daily lives.
Activities
Activities could include:
- Developing an independent panel of regional and international experts to evaluate the merits of candidates to fill justice sector vacancies;
- Identifying vulnerabilities and gaps that enable corruption and arbitrary appointment decisions and proposing feasible reforms to improve processes;
- Exposing and challenging irregularities in the election and selection process of justice actors, such as improper influence peddling and corruption that undermine democratic procedures and the rule of law, and demanding accountability for acts of corruption and obstruction of justice;
- Providing oversight of justice sector administration, including procedures for case assignment, and proposing reforms to improve institutional processes;
- Building relationships between prosecutors, civil society, investigative journalists, academia, and others to amplify oversight findings, to broaden public awareness of improper proceedings, and to strengthen regional judicial networking;
- Facilitating exchanges of experiences and best practices for inclusive participation on merit-based, transparent, and inclusive processes for filling vacancies and litigation strategies to challenge irregularities; Implementing regional and international advocacy activities to raise national and regional benchmarks, norms, and international standards on processes for filling justice sector vacancies.
Funding Information
- Total Funding Floor: $740,740
- Total Funding Ceiling: $740,740
- Period of Performance: 24 or more months
- Anticipated Time to Award, Pending Availability of Funds: 6 months
Eligibility Criteria
- DRL welcomes applications from U.S.-based and foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernment organizations (NGO) and public international organizations; private, public, or state institutions of higher education; and for-profit organizations or businesses.
- DRL’s preference is to work with non-profit entities; however, there may be some occasions when a for-profit entity is best suited.
- Applications submitted by for-profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process.
- Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or commercial organizations under its assistance awards.
- Profit is defined as any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=338129