Deadline: 1-Mar-24
The Secretariat of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (UNVFVT) has launched the 2025 call for applications.
The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (hereafter the Fund) was created in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Its mandate is to receive “voluntary contributions for distribution, through established channels of assistance, as humanitarian, legal and financial aid to individuals whose human rights have been severely violated as a result of torture and to relatives of such victims. “The Fund fulfils its mandate by awarding grants for civil society organizations worldwide to implement projects aimed at providing services to victims of torture and their relatives. The Fund receives voluntary contributions from States and private entities.
The Fund is managed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on behalf of the Secretary-General and operates in conformity with the United Nations Financial Rules and Regulations. The Fund’s Secretariat is comprised of staff members, fellows and interns of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), based in Geneva, Switzerland.
A Board of Trustees (hereafter the Board), composed of independent experts representing the five geographical regions, advises the High Commissioner on the administration of the Fund, including recommendations on grant allocation.
Types of Grants
- The Fund awards three types of grants to civil society organizations:
- Direct assistance (annual) grants: direct assistance grants range between US$ 30,000 and US$ 100,000. Only “on-going applicant” organizations submitting a continuation of a funded project proposal in the same country of implementation may be awarded a grant of more than US$50,000. Direct assistance grants for “first-time” or “returning” categories of applicant organizations cannot exceed US$50,000
- Capacity building (annual) grants: Capacity building grants cannot exceed US$50,000 for all categories of applicant organizations (first-time, returning and on-going).
- Emergency grants: Emergency grants cannot exceed US$100,000.
Duration
- Direct assistance and capacity building grants (annual grants) cover project implementation for a given 12-month calendar year (1 January to 31 December).
- Emergency grant applicants can be submitted and awarded at any time during the year. They can cover a maximum period of 12 months and cannot be renewed or prolonged.
Who can apply?
- The UN General Assembly mandated the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture to distribute voluntary contributions to victims of torture through “established channels of assistance”. As a general rule, only applications by civil society organizations are admissible. Applications by governmental, parliamentary or administrative entities, political parties or national liberation movements are inadmissible.
Eligibility Criteria
- Only applications by civil society organizations and other channels of assistance (for example, hospitals and professional associations) (hereafter organizations) are admissible. Applications by governmental, parliamentary or administrative entities, political parties or national liberation movements are inadmissible.
- Projects aiming to establish a new organization are inadmissible. Organizations should be in operation for at least one year before submitting an application to the Fund. The Fund may consider exceptions to the latter for organizations having to establish a new legal entity due to obstacles or measures preventing them from operating.
- The Fund distinguishes between the following categories of applicant organizations:
- First-time applicants: organizations which have never received a grant from the Fund;
- Returning applicants: organizations which have received a grant from the Fund in the past but not in the previous year;
- On-going applicants: organizations which are currently receiving a grant (direct assistance, capacity building or emergency) from the Fund, divided in two subcategories:
- organizations submitting a continuation of a funded project proposal in the same country of implementation;
- organizations submitting a different project or a different type of grant proposal (direct assistance, capacity building or emergency) in the same country of implementation, or a project in a different country of implementation.
For more information, visit Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.