The European Union (EU) is currently accepting proposals from eligible organizations for its European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) program 2016 with an aim to support civil society in its actions to support the protection and the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms worldwide.

Priority Themes

• Human rights and their defenders where they are the most at risk
• Economic, Social and Cultural rights
• Human Dignity
• Discrimination

Program Lots and Objectives

• Lot 1: Support to women Human Rights Defenders and/or Human Rights Defenders working for women’s and girls’ rights where they are the most at risk (EUR 4,650,000)
  • To recognise and promote the role of women Human Rights Defenders of all ages
  • To protect women Human Rights Defenders
  • To support and protect Human Rights Defenders (both men and women) at risk due to their work for the promotion and protection of the full enjoyment of women’s and girls’ rights
• Lot 2: Support to civil society actions fighting against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (EUR 13,504,000)
  • Prevention of torture and other forms of ill-treatment
  • Accountability for torture and other ill treatment
  • Support for rehabilitation of victims of torture
• Lot 3: Support to the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (EUR 4,650,000)
  • To promote and contribute to the implementation and monitoring of comprehensive National Actions Plans (NAP) outside the European Union; and/or
  • To raise awareness at national, regional and international levels of the rights of affected individuals and communities in the context of corporate-related human rights harm in the global value chains; and/or
  • To contribute to the respect for due diligence and prevention/mitigation actions by all actors for adverse human rights impacts linked to business operations in global value chains; and/or
  • To support and empower the organisations representing the most vulnerable groups and/or women impacted by human rights abuses by business operations in the global value chains; and/or
  • To contribute to increased accountability of businesses and to the promotion of access to remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuses.
• Lot 4: Support to the rights of persons belonging to minorities and persons affected by caste-based discriminations (EUR 3,580,000)
  • To promote the adoption and implementation of legislative, policy
  • To promote equality before the law and equal access to justice, education and/or other basic services
  • To promote the expression in public and private of national, ethnic, cultural, religious, belief and/or linguistic identity
  • To contribute to effective participation of persons belonging to minorities or affected by caste-based discrimination in societal, economic and public life and in decision-making
  • To promote the rights of persons belonging to minorities to set up and maintain their own institutions and associations
• Lot 5: Support to addressing impunity and to transitional justice (EUR 4,650,000)
  • To promote transitional justice mechanisms and processes
  • To promote the effective functioning of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute system

Size of Grants

• Any grant requested under Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this call for proposals must fall between EUR 250,000 and EUR 1,000,000.
• Any grant requested under Lot 5 of this call for proposals must fall between EUR 1,000,000 and EUR 1,550,000.

Location

Actions must take place in one or more countries outside the European Union.

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person or an entity without legal personality or a natural person and
  • be non-profit-making and
  • be a specific type of organisation such as:
    • civil society organisations, including non-governmental non-profit organisations and independent political foundations, community-based organisations and private-sector non-profit agencies, institutions and organisations and networks thereof at local, national, regional and international level;
    • National Human Rights Institutions , Ombudspersons;
    • non-profit-making universities and
  • Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
• For-profit organisations may also be eligible in exceptional and duly justified cases. Indeed, in situations where registration or receipt of foreign funding as non-profit organisation is made very difficult or might put the entity in danger, civil society organisations may be obliged to register as for-profit organisations to continue operating in the field of human rights. The validity of the justification will be examined by the Evaluation Committee.
• International public-sector organisations set up by international agreements, specialised agencies set up by such organisations and other organisations assimilated to such international organisations are not eligible under this call for proposals.
• No nationality restriction applies to applicants and, if any, to co-applicants and affiliated entities.

How to Apply

To apply for this call for proposals the lead applicants need to:

I.     Provide information about the organisations involved in the action. Please note that the registration of this data in PADOR is obligatory for this call for proposals:

Concept note step: Registration is obligatory for lead applicants applying for EU contributions of more than EUR 60 000.

Full application step: Registration is obligatory for co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies). Lead applicants must make sure that their PADOR profile is up to date.

II.     Provide information about the action in the documents listed under sections concept note and full application. Please note that online submission via PROSPECT is obligatory for this call,

PADOR is an on-line database in which organisations register and update information concerning their entity. Organisations registered in PADOR get a unique ID (EuropeAid ID) which they must mention in their application. PADOR is accessible via the website.

It is strongly recommended to register in PADOR well in advance and not to wait until the last minute before the deadline to submit your application in PROSPECT.

If it is impossible to register online in PADOR for technical reasons, the applicants and/or affiliated entity(ies) must complete the ‘PADOR off-line form' attached to these guidelines. This form must be sent together with the application, by the submission deadline.

Before starting using PADOR and PROSPECT, please read the user guides available on the website. All technical questions related the use of these systems should be addressed to the IT helpdesk at [email protected] via the online support form in PROSPECT.

• The application procedure consists of two phases:

Concept notes

Full application

• In the first instance, only concept notes must be submitted for evaluation. Thereafter, lead applicants who have been pre-selected will be invited to submit a full application.

Deadline for submission of concept notes: 14/10/2016 at 16:00 (Brussels date and time)

(in order to convert to local time click here).

Online submission via PROSPECT is mandatory for this call for proposals. In PROSPECT all dates and times are expressed in Brussels time Applicants should note that the IT support is open Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 18:30 Brussels time (except for public holidays). Applicants should take note of the weekly maintenance hours mentioned in the PROSPECT user manual.

For more information, please visit Europeaid and download the guidelines.