Cases of discrimination, intolerance and violation of citizens’ rights are not rare in Montenegro, but are rarely adequately processed despite the existence of a plethora of institutions dealing with the development of policy and legal framework for the protection of human rights. Human rights are one of the programme pillars of the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) and Civic Initiatives (CI) from Belgrade, which have so far carried out numerous successful projects related to the education for human rights education, raising awareness campaigns, initiatives for the change of legislation, etc.
This was the base for designing the project “Fast Forward Human Rights!” through which the CCE and the CI, with the financial support of the European Union, in the period from Novemebr 2013 until January 2015, will furthermore develop its current programmes in quality aspect, as well as introduce new responses to the need to provide contribution in building human rights culture in Montenegro.
The overall objective is to strengthen the role of civil society in promoting human rights and democratic reforms in Montenegro, in supporting the peaceful conciliation of group interests and in consolidating political participation and representation. The specific objective is to improve monitoring and protection of human rights in Montenegro through increased and active participation of CSOs.
Also, this action is within the framework of the Guidelines for EU support to civil society in enlargement countries 2014-2020 of the EC DG Enlargement, where it is highlighted that CSOs must increase “their effectiveness by increasing their capacity for analysis, monitoring and advocacy as well as networking, partnership, coalition-building and active involvement in the policy and law making processes”.
In order to face with the changes, organisations need developed capacities, clear strategic guidelines and also stabile sources of funding. Hence, these changes are the greatest challenge for the organisations of civil society that still did not succeed to build/strengthen their capacities, create/define strategic roadmap and secure financial stability of their programme at the satisfactory level. The activities of the relevant organisations of civil society in the field of protection of human rights are important, since the reforms in democratization of Montenegro can not and must not be conducted only by the institutions, but these require inclusion of all social actors.
Threfore, the project Fast Forward Human Rights! is also focused on providing direct suport to the organisations of civil socjety of different level of development, through the allocation of grants for projects implemented in local communities, strenghtening of their capacities for the successful project implementation in line with the EU rules, and enabling continuous counselling for the project duration. In this manner, the CSOs which are not beneficiaries of the ongoing EIDHR programme in Montenegro are getting knowledge and skills about the human rights and advocacy for human rights, as well as about the management of projects supported through the EU funds, which represent realistic sources of future financing and possibility of securing financial sustainability of their programmes.
Materials for the call for the support to CSO in Montenegro in the field of human rights:
- Call
- Guidelines for Project Applicants
- Application Form
- Annex I Logical Framework Matrix
- Annex II Budget Template
If you want to see the supported proposal, please have a look into the summary of these projects.