Deadline: 27-Mar-23

The European Commission is pleased to announce the Open applications of the Global Europe Thematic Programme on Human rights and Democracy that contributes to justice and the rule of law through increased accountability for serious human rights violations and abuses.

Objectives

• The specific objective of this call for proposals is to fight impunity by building the knowledge base for accountability, and developing comprehensive strategies and tools to address knowledge, capacity and commitment gaps. The initiative will (i) facilitate coordination, access to and sharing of information and knowledge by all relevant actors; and (ii) support their capacity to collect and use evidence and knowledge – for advocacy and accountability at the global, regional and national levels.

Priorities

• The impunity observatory will focus on the most serious human rights violations and abuses whenever systematic and/or widespread as well as core international crimes i.e. genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (hereby understood as “serious violations”).
• Proposals and awarded projects will concentrate on all the following priority issues:
  • Ongoing serious violations (serious violations have taken place, or there is clear and convincing evidence that they are taking place);
  • Future serious violations (there are clear indications that serious violations may be escalated, repeated or reiterated);
  • Focus on those countries where the most serious violations are occurring, based on a strategy/needs assessment informed by existing work on the ground and a risk/security/conflict analysis, and developed in cooperation with the advisory board (to minimise potential risks and maximise impact conducive to concrete advances in the fight against impunity);
  • Proposals should include a clear methodology for the development and review of a “priority issue country list” (which can be refined during the inception period). For instance, applicants must outline the specific criteria, data sources and weightings used to: a) determine whether serious violations are being committed or may be escalated, repeated or reiterated; b) conduct country risk/security/conflict analyses and establish contingency plans (to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive activities and data, informed consent and safety of all involved, etc.).

Type of Action

• The design of the impunity observatory must be organised around four key components:
  • Knowledge management
  • Experience sharing, advocacy and awareness raising
  • Victim-centred, gender-responsive, trauma-responsive and human rights-based approaches
  • Support to local actors (including through financial support to third parties)

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 20,000,000.00. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds. Likewise, this amount could be increased should more funds become available.
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
  • Minimum amount: EUR 20,000,000.00
  • Maximum amount: EUR 20,000,000.00
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum Percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
  • Minimum percentage: 60 % of the total eligible costs of the action.
  • Maximum percentage: 95 % of the total eligible costs of the action
• This call for proposals is launched with a suspensive clause subject to the availability of the funding in 2023.

Expected Results

• Considering the difficult context in which the action will take place, expected results under this call are:
• Enhanced oversight and strengthened role of civil society in monitoring and responding to serious human rights violations and abuses;
• Increased international support for accountability for serious human rights violations and abuses, informed by sound evidence;
• Enhanced victim-centred, trauma-responsive, gender-responsive and human rights-based approaches in the fight against impunity;
• Improved capacities to collect and use data, investigate serious human rights violations and abuses, and to improve access to justice through training and capacity building

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)

• In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • Be a legal person and
  • Be non-profitmaking and
  • Be a non-governmental civil society organisation (please note that the Evaluation Committee will take into consideration the different legal forms of registration in the respective countries, for which the applicant should attach a justification), and
• Have its main area of work, objectives and proven experience in international criminal justice and/or other fields of transitional justice ie. truth-seeking, reparations and guarantees of nonrecurrence, and
• Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
• Have a demonstrated capacity to manage a global initiative. This criterion will be assessed based on proven experience of having worked in over 10 countries across different continents in the last three years.
• No nationality restriction applies to lead applicants and (if any) affiliated entities.

Co-applicant(s)

• The lead applicant must act with at least with five co-applicants, to ensure adequate and specialised geographic (i.e. of each continent) and thematic (i.e. criminal justice, truth-seeking, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence) expertise.
• Co-applicants must satisfy the following eligibility criteria:
  • Be a legal person and
  • Be non-profit-making and
  • Be a non-governmental civil society organisation (please note that the Evaluation Committee will take into consideration the different legal forms of registration in the respective countries46, for which the applicant should attach a justification), and
• Have its main area of work, objectives and proven experience in international criminal justice and/or other fields of transitional justice (truth-seeking, reparations and guarantees of nonrecurrence),
• In addition to the categories referred to supra, the following entities are also eligible as co-applicants:
  • Research and scientific organisations, universities.
  • No nationality restriction applies to co-applicants and (if any) affiliated entities

Affiliated Entities

• The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
• Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to coapplicant(s):
  • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
    • Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
  • Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
    • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier  subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
    • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
    • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
    • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association…) as the proposed affiliated entities.

For more information, visit European Commission.