The Active Citizens for Human Rights (AC4HR) Program will run from March to October 2021, with monthly online meetings and culminating with an offline event in Oslo, Norway. The program is organized by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the contact point for bilateral relations under the Active Citizens Fund and the Civil Society Development Foundation and Frivillighet Norge, on behalf of Active Citizens Fund Romania.

The target group for the evenet are representatives of small and medium sized/ grass root/ local human rights NGOs, with little experience but a lot of motivation and interest in capacity building for human rights.

The goal is to give an opportunity to organizations from Active Citizens Fund beneficiary countries and Norway to come together, learn and discuss issues that they have in their organizations and in their work, especially in relation to specific challenges for building capacity of local/ grass root human rights NGOs.

Objectives

  • To create a platform for learning and sharing experience about capacity building for local/ grass root human rights NGOs in Europe;
  • To enhance cooperation and enable partnership between entities in Norway and Active Citizens Fund beneficiary countries in relation to capacity building for human rights issues.

Outcomes

  • Raised awareness in dealing with capacity building issues;
  • Raised awareness about different strategies applied by organizations in relation to capacity building;
  • Raised cooperation among participating organizations for possible future partnerships.

Phases of the program

  1. Call for selection of organizations from beneficiary states and Norway.
  2. On line sessions – involvement of selected organisations in monthly meetings (1 meeting per month) on different topics. Format – zoom meetings with presentations and work groups, approx 4 hours each meeting. The online sessions will be with Norwegian and beneficiary state organisations and expert(s) on a specific topic from Norway and/or international organizations. Topics of sessions:
  • March 2021 – Connecting month – online facilitated meeting with all selected organizations from Norway and beneficiary states. The meeting creates the context in which they can share important aspects related to their work and will provide the organizers with neccesary info on the needs for capacity building. ”Homework” to be given for the next session.
  • April 2021 – Crisis management month – Discussions and methodologies on how to deal with crisis situations, especially in the pandemic reality (with use of the homework as material for discussions). ”Homework” to be given for the next session.
  • May 2021 – Constituency month – Discussions and methodologies on how to create more followers/ engage people more into the work of the organisations (with use of the homework as material for discussions). ”Homework” to be given for the next session.
  • June 2021 – Campaigning month – Discussions and methodologies on how to effectively run human rights campaigns, especially at local level (with use of the homework as material for discussions). ”Homework” to be given for the coming period.
  • July – August 2021 – Practice months – based on the previous meetings new handouts will be provided with “homeworks” for the participating organizations to put into practice before the final, physical meeting in Oslo.
  1. Meeting in Oslo for all participanting organizations in September/October 2021.

More information on this meeting will come at a later stage.

Apply now

For this program, we seek to select 10 organizations from Norway, small/grass root/local NGOs working on human rights issues, interested in strengthening their capacity, motivated to get involved throughout the program and willing to participate actively in all stages. For the online events several different people from the selected organizations can participate, for the offline event in Oslo, only one person per organization will be able to participate.

Costs related to participation in the physical event (transport, accommodation, meals for the offline event in Oslo) are covered by the organizers. Working language for all meetings: English.

To apply please fill out this online application form as precisely as possible. Deadline for submitting applications is February 22. Organizations will be selected on the basis of the answers provided.

The Active Citizens for Human Rights (AC4HR) Program is the second event of the Active Citizens Days, a series of thematic meetings for participants from all beneficiary countries of the Active Citizens Fund and Norway. The first event was Active Citizens Days – Civic Education organized in September 2019.