The scope of the call is...

• to contribute to the effective monitoring of the implementation of the Recommendation by member states
• to increase the capacity of LGBTI organisations to carry out evidence-based advocacy in Europe, particularly in relation to the implementation of the Recommendation

Under this call for proposals grants will be made to organisations working at national level either on their own or in partnership to carry out two key activities:

1. Documentation of the extent to which the Recommendation's measures remain to be implemented in individual member states – to take place in 2012, using a methodology and to a timetable determined by ILGA-Europe.
2. Advocacy aimed at persuading member states to fill the gaps thus identified - to take place in 2013, on the basis of plans developed by grantees.

ILGA-Europe will provide grantees with the documentation methodology and training in its application. ILGA-Europe will also provide training on advocacy planning, particularly in relation to dialogue with national authorities.

In early 2013 the Council of Europe is to conduct a review of the progress of member states in implementing the Recommendation. As a contribution to this review grantees will provide country reports based on their documentation to the Council of Europe, while ILGA-Europe will provide a summary of the overall position.

For further details of the project, please see...

• Guidelines
• Report Format
• Guide to the Committee of Ministers Recommendation.

Grants under this Call for Proposals “Implementing the Council of Europe Recommendation on LGBT Rights” are funded by the Dutch Government.

Target countries, grants available and eligible organisations

Up to 20 grants will be awarded within this call, with not more than one per country.

Preference will be given to qualifying applications from the 13 non-EU Council of Europe member states from Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus*.This will leave a minimum of 7 grants available for other European countries. It will be important for applicants from these countries to demonstrate clearly the relevance of the project to the needs of their LGBTI community.

Grants will be for sums of up to €10,000, although in respect of larger countries such as Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, up to €15,000 will be available.

Applicants should be LGBTI organisations, or LGBTI groups within a larger organisation. They should be officially registered with local authorities, or, in countries where there are no registered LGBTI NGOs, unregistered initiative groups.

Expertise

Applicants are encouraged to consider forming partnerships with other organisations, both within the LGBTI community and externally, in order to bring the necessary expertise to the project. This may be particularly important in the case of expertise in relation to transgender issues, which applicants will be required to demonstrate.

Applicants may also wish to consider supplementing their in-house expertise with specialist legal advice.

It will be acceptable for applicants to form a partnership with an academic or research institution. Partnerships with a foreign organisation will also be acceptable.

Conditions

Successful applicants will be required to accept the following conditions:

• The documentation methodology outlined in the Guidelines must be followed precisely, in order to permit comparability with evidence from other countries.
• The project must cover both sexual orientation and gender identity
• The report must be delivered to ILGA-Europe by 31 August 2012, in order to permit its review, and the preparation of a European level summary report, in time for submission to the Council of Europe.
• Where a translation is not already available, the Recommendation and the associated checklist (see Guidelines) must be translated into the national language; also, the report must be prepared in the national language as well as in English or French.
• A representative of the grantee must attend all trainings and a Council of Europe study visit.

Applications and their evaluation

Please complete application form below.

Applications will be evaluated by the Advisory Board of ILGA-Europe's Human Rights Violations Documentation Fund – see the Guidelines for further details.

Find the application form here.

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For additional information please contact ILGA-Europe’s Programmes Director Maxim Anmeghichean.

Read more about the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers on LGBT rights here.

Read more about the Fund here.

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* Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. Applications in respect of Belarus are not eligible under this Call, as Belarus is not a Council of Europe member state.