The European Union Representative Office to the West Bank and Gaza Strip is seeking proposals for activities and initiatives that support human rights and democracy under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights Country Based Support Schemes (EIDHR-CBSS) 2020 Programme.

The call main focus will be on the priorities that aim at strengthening the role of civil society in ensuring respect for right to education and right to health with the focus on  promoting and protecting the rights of vulnerable groups including children, women, people with disability.

The financial assistance is allocated from the 2020  budgets of European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR-CBSS).

The global objective of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2018-2020 is to enhance the respect for implementation and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in line with international and regional human rights standards, conventions and instruments, and to strengthen their protection, promotion and monitoring, mainly through support to relevant CSOs, human rights defenders (HRDs) and victims of repression and abuse. It also aims at supporting, developing and consolidating democracy in third countries by enhancing participatory and representative democracy, strengthening the overall democratic cycle, in particular by reinforcing an active role for civil society within this cycle, the rule of law and improving the reliability of electoral processes through means of election observation missions.

In Palestine, the global objective of the Country-Based Support Scheme (CBSS) is to strengthen the role of Palestinian civil society (CS) in the promotion and monitoring of human rights.  

In view of the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in the country, the specific objective of the Call is focused on promoting basic human rights and democracy addressing mainly objectives 2 of the EIDHR Strategy Paper 2014-2020 to mitigate impact of the crisis on Education and health,  two primary sectors that have witnessed many challenges.

The CBSS programme in Palestine in conjunction with the EU Human Rights and Democracy Country Strategy and the 2011 Local Strategy on Human Rights Defenders will focus on the priorities stated below.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is : Support to EU Human Rights Priorities:

• Promote respect/protection for Right to Education including the adoption of a participatory and inclusive approach in planning and implementation of educational policies and educational priorities as reflected in the Palestinian Emergency Response Plan. Attention to addressing the vulnerable groups’ needs (primarily disability and gender needs), the bridging of the knowledge gap, and the development of a distance learning version and decentralisation of decision-making and mitigation measures are highly encouraged.

Long-term priorities need to consider the type of educational system in Palestine and public expenditure priorities focusing on opportunities provided by con-current and non-concurrent distance learning and the efforts of educational reforms.

• Promote respect/protection for Right to Health including promotion of health care for the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups including PwDs, women, the elderly, children, the poor, prisoners and those in marginalized areas with attention to priorities as reflected in the Palestinian Emergency Response Plan and health policies including community engagement, raising-awareness, protective/ preventive measurements, referral system and others.