Promoting human rights and non-discrimination principles at the local level
Budget: 94.662 €
Funding: This Project is funded by UNMIK
Summary:
This project is designed to build the capacities of municipal authorities and other relevant institutions to monitor and report on human rights in line with international and European human rights standards. The initially selected municipalities to cover are in the region of Gjilan/Gnjilane, Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, Ferizaj/Uroševac, Prizren, and Peja/Peć, or at least 10 municipalities from 5 (five) above mentioned regions.
Based on previous efforts by the Council of Europe, which has worked with various local and central institutions on non-discrimination issues, the project will further develop the capacities of human rights focal points within municipal authorities and relevant institutions, such as local field staff of the Ombudsperson office; municipal agencies, and departments etc. It will, in particular, aim at standardising human rights reporting across municipalities as well as channeling it to central institutions. The project will also support regular consultations between municipal authorities, representatives of the Ombudsperson Institution and civil society organisations at central and local levels with a view to reaching a common understand of the human rights situation and boosting co-operation to address human rights violations at all levels. It also envisages support to selected local civil society organisations working on human rights issues, including non-discrimination, to engage in shadow reporting; networking with municipal stakeholders and local awareness campaigns on equality. The specificities of their engagement will be defined in line with the project outcomes related to targeted institutions.
Outputs:
Main outputs of the project will be:
- Increased awareness of municipal officials of international human rights standards, including anti-discrimination principles and respect for tolerance, diversity and inclusion in communities.
- Municipal officials become familiar with the newly devised reporting tool on anti-discrimination, feeding in the annual cycle of reporting coordinated by OGG, and are able to apply the same methodology in the context of other human rights reporting cycles. Officials can report based on quantitative and qualitative data on discrimination collected.
- Municipal officials, civil society organizations, and representatives of the Ombudsperson Institution from different municipalities exchange information on human rights issues and improve their cooperation and coordination.
- Local civil society organizations work on shadow reporting on human rights and engage in discussions with the municipalities, bridging the gap between local institutions and communities.
End Beneficiary: citizens
Target Groups: Office of the Good Governance (OGG), Municipalities, Civil Society Organisations and Ombudsperson Institution.
Betim ZLLANOGA
Senior Project Officer
+383 38 40 77 72
6792
Lindita HOTI-SHALA
Project Assistant
+383 38 40 77 97
6797
Start date 01 July 2022
End date 30 June 2023