Palestine: Human Rights and Democracy Programme

Deadline: 24-May-22

The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals in line with Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) human rights and democracy (HR&D) programme that seeks to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law by strengthening the role of civil society (CS).

Objectives

The Specific objectives of this call for proposals addresses mainly the below objectives ofthe Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024:

• Protecting and Empowering Individuals
  • Support human rights defenders and human rights organizations, and fighting all forms of violations, for instance, defamation/smear campaigns, threats, intimidation and ill treatment, unlawful arrest and arbitrary detention, abusive control and surveillance through advocacy and lobbying at national, regional or international level in line with the EU guidelines on human rights defenders.Support regional and international advocacy on Human Rights violations by the different duty-bearers to hold them accountable through different local and international means and mechanisms.
  • Promote the principle of non-discrimination and protecting the rights of vulnerable groups  (in particular children in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), youth as a very vulnerable category in Palestine, women by ensuring equal treatment and opportunities for women and combating gender-based and domestic violence in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), persons with disability (PwD) and other groups.
  • Promote respect/protection for Right to Health and health care for the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups including persons with disability (PwDs), women, the elderly, children, the poor, prisoners and those in marginalized areas in line with national health policies including community engagement, raising-awareness, protective/ preventive measurements, referral system and others.
  • Support fighting against torture and other forms of ill-treatment (prevention, rehabilitation, accountability and mobilization of public support against torture), support the full establishment of the National Protection Mechanism (NPM), promote monitoring and implementation of Palestine’s commitments under the Convention against Torture (CAT) and Optional Protocol (OPCAT) including constructive dialogue with the relevant authorities in order to improve detention conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and enhance public oversight on performance of security apparatusesand fairness of justice processes.
• Safeguarding fundamental freedoms, including byharnessing the opportunities and addressing the challenges of new technologies
  • Ensure respect for human rights fundamental freedoms: Freedoms of Association/Assembly, expression and media (including online electronic media); improve citizen’s access to information through adequate national legal frameworks and raise CSOs’ capacity building and the media in monitoring the respect for human rights.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1,500,000 to be financed under 2021 budget and an indicatively EUR 1,330,000 to be financed under 2022 budget and subject to the approval of the 2022 financing decision. Equally, this amount could be increased should more funds become available.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals mustfall between the followin gminimum and maximum amounts:
  • Minimum amount: EUR  350,000
  • Maximum amount: EUR  500,000

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 specific type of organisation such as: civil society organisations,  among them non-governmental organisations, community-based organizations, charitable society organisations; orprivate sector non-profit agencies; non-profit-making  universities and research organisations; or non-profit networks; and
    • be established in Palestine at least 2 years before the launching date of this Call and officially  registered with the competent Palestinian authorities; 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)
  • 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 co-applicant(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).
      • 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.

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