• WG1: Democracy & Human Rights
  • Regranting 2016
  • Regranting 2015
  • Azerbaijan Watch
• WG2: Economic Integration
• WG3: Environment & Energy
• WG4: Contacts between People
• WG5: Social & Labour Policies and Social Dialogue
• Regranting Projects

The sub-group will continue the initiative of producing annual human rights monitoring report that should be ready by the Civil Society Forum in Chisinau. The previous reports from 2011 are available here: http://archive.eap-csf.eu/en/working-groups/wg1-democracy-human-rights/resources/alert-monitoring-report-on-human-rights-in-eastern-partnership-countries/ (interim report from April 2011) and here: http://archive.eap-csf.eu/en/working-groups/wg1-democracy-human-rights/resources/monitoring-report-on-human-rights/ (updated report from November 2011)

The sub-group has come up with input for the EaP Platform 1 meeting, where attention should be drawn to the following five issues:

1. The issue of discrimination in the EaP states based on different factors, including but not limited to religious, political affiliation, sexual orientation, ethnicity, sphere of activity, specifically human rights activism/protection and reporting/investigative journalism.
2. The lack of real electoral reforms and the unfavourable electoral environment, which serves the interests of the incumbents. The issues are specifically visible in the light of recent elections in Armenia and become most urgent with the upcoming elections in Georgia and Azerbaijan (arrest of a presidential candidate in Azerbaijan).
3. In the light of upcoming elections and in terms of general effectiveness of CSOs in countries such as Azerbaijan and Belarus, freedom of assembly, association, and expression becomes another pressing issue, which should be addressed.
4. For effective protection of human rights and restoration of violated rights independence of judiciary is crucial. And this independence should focus both on making the judiciaries apolitical and non-partisan, but also on promoting the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Commissioner for HR, which include not only providing monetary compensation, but also initiating new investigations and trials in national courts.
5. Criminal prosecution for activities on behalf of the unregistered CSOs in Belarus according to the article 193.1 of the Criminal Code along with registration barriers for non-governmental organizations is unacceptable. Members of the group will continue advocating for its dissolution in Belarus and prevention of it appearing in others (Azerbaijan).