CSD-Report 21 - Civil Society in Bulgaria: Trends and Risks

Author(s): Emil Tzenkov,Todor Yalamov,Todor Galev,Pavel Antonov,Svetla Encheva,Boyko Todorov,Yanita Georgieva,Teodora Georgieva / Language(s): English

The current analysis depicts the major trends in and risks to the development of civil society in Bulgaria. Three groups of risks are identified related to the establishment of public-private partnerships, the capture of civil society by politicians at local and national level, and the nature of commercial activities performed by non-profit organizations. The suggested legislative changes and measures target state and municipal structures related to non-profit organizations. In addition, this paper outlines measures aimed at self-regulation and greater transparency in the "third sector".

Поларизацијата како средство на популистичко владеење и како да се надмине

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Albanian,English,Macedonian

KONTINENT / КОНТИНЕНТ – Ost-West-Forum – Ausgabe 1976 / 05

Author(s): Jossif Bogoras,Georgi Boshinov,Joseph Brodsky,Vasilj Grossman,Eugène Ionesco,Boris Yampolsky,Vladimir Rafailovič Maramzin,Jurij K. Oleša,Andrej Sinjavskij,Josef Smrkovský,Jewgenij Ternowskij / Language(s): German

Wassilij Grossman — From the second part of the novel "For the just cause" // Georgi Boshinov — Green forests, cold water // Jossif Bogoras — The cell spike (novel) Part one // Wladimir Maramsin — The horse with two heads // Boris Jampolskij — Long live the world without me — to Jurij Oljescha // Jurij Oljescha — Liompa — Love — From "Not a day without a line" // Andrej Sinjawski — Promenades with Pushkin. Excerpts // Jossif Brodskij Lullaby from the Cod Cape. Poem // Josef Smrkovský — The unfinished conversation // Yevgeny Ternowskij — The dark face of Gogol // From the editors — Conversation with Eugene Ionesco

Social Inclusion for Older Persons and Human Rights Law. The Potential for Universal and European Instruments

Author(s): Barbara Mikołajczyk / Language(s): English

Global ageing is a challenge to human rights law as older people are far more vulnerable to a range of social, economic and political barriers that effectively exclude them from mainstream society. Thus, this book proposes a model of how to improve national ageing policies internationally by changing the current paradigm in the perception of older persons from passive receivers of care and assistance to active contributors to society. The author points to the need to improve the visibility of older persons internationally, promotes the idea of a treaty on their rights, and identifies areas where states and non-state actors can positively influence their social inclusion at the national level.

Russia Serbia Relations at the beginning of XXI Century

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Towards the end of Kosovo status negotiations in 2007 and 2008 the Serbian political scene was filled with historically frequent, yet unusually intensive surge of enthusiasm towards Russia, its interests, priorities, and its Western Balkans policy. Praises of the modern day Russia and its internal political model became a common practice, which further led to a greater perception, among Serbian citizens, of Russia being a key political resource that Serbia could seriously rely upon. However, all these commendations, wishes and activities, were rather based on emotional and irrational grounds. They were formed by the historical closeness of the two peoples (defined by ethnicity, not by citizenship), and the common religious and cultural heritage, which were, according to this logic, easy to be transferred to the political level. Reasons for this increased enthusiasm naturally lay in the unresolved Kosovo status issue, but also in the rising number of economic and political problems. Russia has been perceived, as many times before in Serbian history, as a protector, with a sufficient political and economic capacity to help resolve Serbian problems. At the same time, scientific and rational arguments about Russia’s role and position were practically ignored, starting from the obvious (geographical distance), through more sophisticated ones (realistic interests and politics of Russia), to the completely theological (Russia’s vision of Serbia’s future and its social and political model) arguments.

Historia polityczna Polski 1989-2023

Author(s): Antoni Dudek / Language(s): Polish

Jest to wykład rzetelny, skonstruowany ściśle chronologicznie, bardziej opowiadający niż analizujący. Historia polityczna w ujęciu Autora to historia polityki, która rozgrywa się przede wszystkim na terenie instytucji państwowych i w obrębie klasy politycznej. Głównym podmiotem nie jest więc anonimowe społeczeństwo, obecne w postaci wyników sondaży i głosowań, a niekiedy opisu strajków. Są nim bezpośredni uczestnicy – przede wszystkim liderzy – gry (walki) politycznej, co nadaje płynności wywodom Antoniego Dudka i podnosi temperaturę narracji. Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Paczkowski Antoni Dudek jako jeden z pierwszych profesjonalnych badaczy zajął się początkami, a następnie dziejami Trzeciej Rzeczpospolitej. Swój warsztat historyka i politologa wykorzystuje także w najnowszej, opartej na rozległych badaniach, historii politycznej Polski. To najlepszy dziś przewodnik dla wszystkich próbujących zrozumieć nasze dzieje po upadku rządów komunistycznych. Prof. dr hab. Jerzy Eisler Antoni Dudek – historyk i politolog, profesor nauk humanistycznych. W latach 1989–2014 pracownik Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, obecnie wykładowca na UKSW w Warszawie. W latach 2011–2016 członek i ostatni przewodniczący Rady IPN. Autor i współautor wielu książek o historii najnowszej Polski oraz jej systemie politycznym. Publicysta i komentator polityczny, prowadzi na YouTube autorski kanał „Dudek o Historii”.

Prava LGBT osoba u Bosni i Hercegovini: Unutrašnji poslovi

Author(s): Mia Čustović,Zlatiborka Popov-Momčinović / Language(s): Bosnian

Treća studija koja je pred nama, a koja je nastala u okviru projekta Coming out! Zagovaranje i zaštita prava LGBT osoba, odnosi se na prava i slobode LGBT osoba u BiH u kontekstu sektora unutrašnjih poslova. Ovom studijom pokušale smo steći dublji uvid u percepcije, shvatanja, iskustva i uopšte senzibilitet zaposlenika_ca navedenog sektora kada je riječ o LGBT populaciji, koja spada u jednu od najmarginalnijih i najnevidljivijih društvenih grupa. Može se reći da je ovo više nego složen sektor koji ima različite nivoe, uključujući i razlike u načinu funkcionisanja na entitetskim nivoima. Ova složenost pa i svojevrsna neuhvatljivost stavova zaposlenika_ca ogleda se u tome da njihovo slobodno izražavanje može biti limitirano hijerarhijskom strukturom samog sektora, opterećenošću policije više nego brojnim društvenim problemima i slučajevima koji zahtijevaju danonoćnu policijsku intervenciju, i nerijetko, raspolučenošću između službenih stavova i njihovih ličnih percepcija i iskustava.

PrEUgovor : Report on Progress of Serbia in Chapters 23 and 24

Author(s): Not Specified Author / Language(s): English

Serbia officially started the negotiation process for its accession to European Union (EU) in January 2014, more than two years. So far, only two negotiation chapters have been opened: 32 (Financial Control), 35 (Other Issues, which in Serbia’s case, refers to Belgrade-Pristina relations), thus she was invited to prepare negotiation positions for two other chapters: 14 (Transport Policy) and 21 (Trans-European Networks). Negotiations on Chapters 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security), being of the most relevance for the following report, have yet to be opened, despite the facts that this was announced at the beginning of the negotiation process and that these chapters were the first to be opened during the latest round of EU enlargement. Finally, even though their opening has been scheduled for June 2016, this has also been called into doubt since Croatia, now an EU member state, recently raised reservations over certain issues covered by Chapter 23.

Protection of Human Rights in the Army and Police

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Serbian

The book Protection of Human Rights in the Army and the Police combines the papers prepared by the researchers and associates of the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, a Belgrade-seated NGO, within a project on the “Protection of Human Rights in the Army and the Police of the FR of Yugoslavia”. The whole project, including the publishing effort, was implemented with the support of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, London and Freedom House, Budapest. The project, initially conceived as one-year (2000-2001) interdisciplinary research exercise, was essentially aimed at identifying the degree of respect for human rights in the Yugoslav army and the police. The research also extended to the observance of human rights of citizens under the jurisdiction of the army and/or the police. The main task of the researchers was to look into the (im)balance between the regulative – constitutional and legal – protection of human rights in the army and the police of the FRY and their actual discharge. In order to do that relevant empirical data had to be collected.To this end, in early 2001, the Centre for Public Opinion and Political Research of the Institute for Social Sciences of the University of Belgrade carried out a survey on the situation of human rights and freedoms in the Yugoslav army and the police on a representative sample of 1680, as required for project purposes. The survey findings were presented to the public at a press conference on 12 April 2001 in the Belgrade Media Centre. The conclusive analysis of findings was then incorporated into the present Collection of Papers.

Siromaštvo, ruralnost, rod : istraživanje funkcionisanja sistema socijalne zaštite u ruralnim oblastima Srbije

Author(s): / Language(s): Serbian

The main goal of this research involves gaining insight into the current situation and the functioning of the social protection system in Serbia, including girls, young people women and women16 from rural areas, the target group that is at the center of the analysis. The specific objectives of the research are to identify and present barriers to access social services for the rural population. Further analysis deals with the needs, satisfaction with the services provided, as well as opportunities for greater participation rural population in the creation of social policy development plans. By research the needs of organizations and institutions that provide social services are also included protection and support, as well as opportunities to develop and improve their business and relations towards and with service users.

Civilni monitoring u okviru projekta ZASTUPANJE INTERESA ROMA U OKVIRU SARAJEVSKOG REGIONALNOG STAMBENOG PROGRAMA

Author(s): Nedžad Jusić,Milan Radović,Dubravka Mišković Prodanović,Ratko Bubalo / Language(s): Bosnian,English,Croatian,Serbian,Montenegrine

At the beginning of 2014, Igman Initiative, a network of CSOs from the countries signatories to the Dayton Agreement, had set off the project of civic monitoring of implementation of Regional Housing Programme (in further text RHP), with special focus on providing housing care for Roma, as one of the most vulnerable groups within the refugee population, and integrating their interest in that process. A special vulnerability of Roma population derives from the fact that Roma are often unemployed and live off social assistance in hard housing conditions, often in illegal and segregated settlements without proper infrastructure, in flats which they illegally inhibited or in housing units without construction permit and proof of ownership. Consequently, they face difficulties in exercising their status rights and accessing health services, education, employment, social protection and housing care, usually due to the absence of personal documents, poverty, and traditional way of living or limited access to institutions. In relation to other refugees and DPs a majority Roma is in the category of legally invisible persons (absence of personal documents). As a result, and because of prejudice, they encounter numerous difficulties in obtaining documents and realizing refugee status or acquiring citizenship, which is conditioned by the acquisition of citizenship in domicile country or the status of foreigner with permanent residence, all which is a prerequisite for the exercise of other rights, including the right to housing. For example, although the Government of Montenegro is putting enormous effort into solving the status of DPs and IDPs the major risk lies in the fact that a majority of Roma still hasn’t regulated its status in Montenegro. The rights to housing under the RHP will only have those DPs and IDPs who have regulated their status. This project was initiated for the reason that the Igman Initiative has warned before that there is bias and unequal treatment in the region, including discrimination of Roma with regards to their access to housing care, as well as numerous issues with regard to proving the status of refugees, or the ownership of property or its devastation. The main objective of the project is to improve the status of Roma refugees, DPs and IDPs in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, by providing assistance in accessing housing care and providing support to competent authorities in their efforts to permanently resolve Roma issues in the area of housing. During the realization of this project it has been determined that competent institutions in the countries of the Dayton Quadrangle responsible for the implementation of the RHP do not have precise data on Roma refugees and DPs, their number, current territorial density and their housing needs. General statistical data regarding Roma population, i.e. Roma refugees and DPs, does not match the state of affairs in this area. Due to the lack of data on Roma refugees, DPs, IDPs and their housing needs, in relation to anticipated models of the RHP implementation in participating countries, there is a risk that a significant number of the most vulnerable Roma refugee and displaced families will be neglected during the implementation of the RHP. For example, in Croatia the RHP deals primarily with persons who are still placed in refugee camps or collective centers or with former holders of tenancy rights, among whom there are no Roma refugees, DPs or IDPs. For this reason, competent institutions in the RHP implementing countries should determine the exact number of Roma refugees, DPs and IDPs, their territorial density as well as their accurate housing needs, so as to adjust the anticipated models of the RHP implementation in a way that will include most vulnerable Roma refugee and displaced families in the programs of housing care. The RHP does not recognize Roma refugees, DPs and IDPs as a special vulnerable group, but determines the final beneficiaries according to unprecedented criteria of vulnerability regardless of nationality, other affiliations, or other individual circumstance. Therefore it is difficult to monitor the implementation of the RHP in relation to this or any other ethnic group. With regard to terms of conditions and criteria for the selection of final beneficiaries, the RHP guarantees equal status to all refugees and displaced persons, so that no group within the refugee and DP population receives a special treatment. Consistent with that approach the most vulnerable refugees and DPs, among whom a significant part is Roma, will receive assistance, under the requisite that they submit their applications with all requested documentation. Nevertheless, although the status of Roma refugees and DPs is formally equal to the status of other categories of socially vulnerable refugees and DPs in respect of access to the RHP, their housing and the overall socio-economic status is, by rule, more vulnerable, due to which their access to the RHP is undermined in relation to other categories of socially vulnerable refugees and DPs.

POTESTAS a popolo - vlast izbliza

Author(s): Milena Veličković / Language(s): Serbian

The current state of the society we belong to can be understood as a state of new beginning, as a new chance offered to all of us and to each individual in particular. How our society will develop and in what direction it will move depends on all of us. The realization of civilizational achievements and modern standards requires the comprehensive inclusion of citizens in social processes.

Prekogranična saradnja, instrument razvoja

Author(s): / Language(s): Serbian

The aim of the project "What brings the European Union - case studies on the effects of Serbia's accession to the European Union in the fields of ecology, agriculture and cross-border cooperation" is to investigate and to indicate to citizens and decision-makers at the national and local level in Serbia whether, in what way, to what extent and under what conditions the processes of europeanization and Serbia's approach to the European Union increase the prospects of Serbia to accelerate its development and make better use of its development potential. Research was carried out in three areas: protection of the human environment, cross-border cooperation and agriculture. Research was done on the examples of specific local communities using the "case study" methodology, which allows one to easily observe the possible effects of europeanization on examples from practice and in a recognizable environment in which Serbian citizens live, face certain problems and try to solve them. The aforementioned three areas were selected for research because they are either spoken of as an essential development resource, regardless of the limits for their use (agriculture), or without a sufficient understanding of their function (cross-border cooperation), or without a clear observation of how and under what conditions they have a limiting or stimulating effect on other development potentials (protection of the human environment) and development resources.

On the Deeds of Weak Institutions

Author(s): Miša Brkić / Language(s): English

The blossoming of corruption is not a feature of transition exclusively in Serbia. However, what is nevertheless distinguishing for Serbia among transition countries is that transition agony never seems to end as well as a total absence of sanctions that could have compensated at least a small portion of public funds expropriated by transition corruption.

Kako stati na put politizaciji javnih preduzeća u Srbiji

Author(s): Not Specified Author / Language(s): Serbian

Public enterprises represent a significant part of the Serbian economy and provide some of the basic infrastructure services to citizens and the economy. Almost the entire sector of public utilities in Serbia, which was formed to provide services at the local, regional level and national level, it remained in state ownership,1 including and the most important companies in the field of energy production and transport, telecommunications, air traffic, etc. They are public enterprises employed almost 150,000 people in 2008, which is almost one one-eighth of the total number of employees in Serbian companies.2 Although from at the beginning of the transition, the number of employees in public enterprises decreases, they still represent the largest Serbian employers. Total income of public companies in 2008 amounted to about 850 billion dinars, or about 10.5 billion euros, which is about 15 percent of the total of company income in Serbia. The ratio between total public revenues companies and gross domestic product (GDP) is about 1:3.

Glavni problemi javnih nabavki u Srbiji

Author(s): Not Specified Author / Language(s): Serbian

One of the most important areas of European integration is public procurement and public-private partnerships. Although the negotiations between Serbia and the European Union in Chapter 5 were opened among the first, in a situation where the relevant regulations were already harmonized to a significant extent with EU regulations, the current state of negotiations is far from desired. Year after year, the European Commission repeats the same key recommendations, pointing not only to omissions and delays, which can often be found in other negotiation chapters, but also to procedures that represent an open violation of the principles of competition and equal treatment when concluding the most valuable deals. In addition, public procurement figures as one of the eight "most vulnerable" areas for corruption in the Chapter 23 Action Plan.

PREUGOVOR alarm : report on the progress of Serbia in chapters 23 and 24

Author(s): / Language(s): English

The prEUgovor coalition (Eng. prEUnup) is the first coalition of civil society organisations formed to monitor the implementation of policies relating to the accession negotiations between Serbia and the EU, with an emphasis on Chapters 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security) of the acquis. It is comprised of seven civil society organisations with expertise in the thematic areas covered by Chapters 23 and 24. The coalition was formed in 2013, with the mission of proposing measures to foster improvement in the fields relevant for the negotiation process. In doing so, the coalition aims to use the EU integration process to help accomplish substantial progress in the further democratisation of the Serbian society.

Security Sector Capture in Serbia – An Early Study

Author(s): Katarina Đokić,Saša Đorđević,Marija Ignjatijević,Jelena Pejić Nikić,Predrag Petrović / Language(s): English

Report on state capture in Serbia is BCSP genuine and pioneering work aiming to document and deconstruct ongoing process of state capture in the security sector through presentation of mechanisms, actors and consequences of this process. For several years now, various international indexes have been measuring the stagnation and decline of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in Serbia. Although the country is still formally in the process of European integration, the European Commission noticed back in 2018 that there are elements of state capture in the entire Western Balkans region. Due to the significance and ubiquity of this phenomenon in Serbia, the BCSP has embarked upon a pilot research project that aims to establish the main factors and conditions, as well as the mechanisms and actors, involved in state capture in the security sector. The capturing of the police, the security services and the defence sector in Serbia is analysed in this early study. Furthermore, it was necessary to situate the analysis in the country’s political context, and special chapters cover parliamentary oversight and control and the security sector financing. The research was conducted from May 2019 to April 2020 and is based on insights gleaned from both primary and secondary sources.

What is the EU Law Enforcement Directive? How Law Enforcement Authorities (Should) Protect Personal Data

Author(s): Jelena Pejić Nikić / Language(s): English

The legislative act is known as the EU Law Enforcement Directive (LED) (known also as the EU Police Directive), a twin sister to the far more widely known General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR). Both GDPR and LED are part of a new EU legislative package that has significantly improved personal data protection standards. They were adopted in the spring of 2016 and have been in force since May 2018. While the General Regulation has garnered most of the attention from the expert community, governmental and non-governmental sector, the business world and the broader public concerned with individual privacy, the Law Enforcement Directive is rather specific – for both the circumstances in which it applies and from the approaches it adopts.

U raskoraku sa svetom

Author(s): Milivoje Maksić / Language(s): Serbian

Three categories can be discerned in the selection of these texts. The first consists of advocacy for the preservation of the former unified state and for a policy that would not lead us into international isolation and conflicts within the country and with the world. These texts (some published for the first time) represent personal beliefs and directions of engagement, but they are also illustrative of the thoughts and views of the majority of the then leading core in foreign affairs, as well as the moods of a significant part of the middle diplomatic staff.