Human rights actions

The European Commission has launched a central call for proposals in support of human rights and fundamental freedoms in countries where they are most at risk under Objective 1 of the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).
 
There are four themes for this call for proposals:
1.     the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
2.     the right to freedom of opinion and expression, to information and to communicate, including freedom of the media, fight against censorship, and access to the Internet;
3.     the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, including the right to form and join a trade union;
  1. the right to freedom of movement within the borders of a state, and the right to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country.
This call for proposal does not have specific geographical restrictions,  but it does require applicants to make the case using independent monitoring reports to justify the action they seek funding for in a particular country or region (see page 10 of the below Guidelines for an explanation of this requirement).
 
The total grant available is 11.5 million euro from the 2007 budget. The minimum grant size is 150,000 euro and the maximum grant size is 1.2 million euro. The European Commission's grant may not be less than 50% or more than 80% of the total project cost.  Re-granting is allowed within tight financial restrictions and it is not allowed to be the primary purpose of the application.
 
The duration of projects that will be supported is a minimum of 18 months and a maximum of 36 months.
 
The deadline for the submission of proposals is 24 January 2008. Unlike with the old EIDHR, if you are unable to meet this deadline, there will be other opportunities later in the year (currently scheduled for June and December 2008) to apply for funding under this objective.
 
There is a two-stage application process, with the first stage involving the submission of a four page concept note and several accompanying forms which can be found here: Guidelines for grant applicants   Annex A - Grant Application Form (Part A and B)   Annex B - Budget   Annex C - Logical Framework  
 
Any queries you may have about this call for proposals can be emailed (EuropeAid-FFRC2007@ec.europa.eu) to the European Commission up to 21 days before the deadline.