A New Beginning – Sectoral Innovations for a Proactive, Progressive and Influential Human Rights Civil Society
Project Promoter: Human Rights House Zagreb
Partner organizations:
1: Centre for Peace Studies
2: Youth Initiative for Human Rights Croatia
3: Center for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights Osijek
4: Human Rights House Foundation, Norway
Contracted amount: 199.909,82 EUR
Contact person: Ivan Novosel, kontakt@kucaljudskihprava.hr
Web site: www.kucaljudskihprava.hr
Project Summary:
The aim of this project is to increase social and political influence of civil society organizations in Croatia through the development of innovative ways of effective protection and promotion of human rights. In the past few years, Croatia has been facing a continuous decline in human rights and an increasingly difficult socio-economic situation. At the same time, institutions are passive and do not have sufficient capacity to design public policies, i.e. solutions to citizens’ problems based on human rights, as well as to tackle the increasingly complex political, social and economic challenges of today.
In response to these challenges, the project partners will work together with other CSOs to design new working approaches and innovative models for institutional and legal advocacy, support for victims of human rights violations and public communication and mobilization of citizens. The project is rooted in partnership, participation and lessons learned. Objective analysis of challenges and problems in the sector and joint design of solutions and concrete steps will be used to build trust, encourage synergy and establish sustainable, long-term and structural cooperation among civil society organizations.
The project is based on the interrelation of public advocacy and direct work on the protection of human rights and work with vulnerable social groups and communities.
The project activities will strengthen the capacities for institutional advocacy and lobbying for human rights protection towards domestic and international institutions through education, training, networking and resource sharing. The capacities of CSOs for legal advocacy will be strengthened through education and training, and through networking of legal professionals from CSOs with lawyers and members of the academic community interested in human rights. Project activities will contribute to strengthening the capacities of civil society for public communication and direct work with local communities, as well as for joint efforts to mobilize citizens in order to protect and promote human rights.
This project, through the joint efforts of project partners and involved civil society organizations, creates the necessary preconditions for change of paradigm regarding the work of human rights organizations from reactive to proactive and progressive, i.e. from defending acquired rights to their further promotion.
Project Results:
