Act Beyond Borders
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The Civil Society Act Beyond Borders Project is co-funded by the European Commission, European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)and was carried out in collaboration with The Palestinian Dialogue Center, PDC, from West Bank and The Association for Progressive Education in Honor of Meir Yaari (YAARI)from Israel.
Background
The modern day violent conflict between Israeli and Palestinian factions has lasted for more than half a century. This conflict exists at the political as well as the civic level because there have been repeated human rights violations within the two communities which have created a culture of mistrust, hatred and demonization. The political instability that exists within and between the two communities further polarizes Israeli and Palestinian civil society. Even though the conflict is engrained in the psyche of the people, the hope from many CSOs is for peaceful co-existence and increased respect for human rights. While recent political developments have been attempting resolution, especially since the most recent outbreak of violence, there is need for strong support for CSO collaboration to advocate for positive change at the society level regarding issues ranging from human rights, cooperation, and integration to democratic representation that will shape national developmental policies and a willingness to accept the other. The time is now for the civil society actors to be supported in their efforts to be strengthened in their capacity building exercises and continued dialogue. Experts in and on the region have begun to turn to civil society as a new direction to solve the age old problem. Civil society is a possible answer to the question of how society and state can interact and reinforce each other in a manner that creates and sustains a democratic system. CSOs can play a crucial role in raising awareness about democratisation, civic participation and human rights, including rights of citizens, and in mobilising citizens to stand up for these rights and to raise support for issues of concern to their respective political leaders if supported in these endeavours. Palestinian and Israeli civil society can utilise the experience of European civil society organisations and implement its model that has had a positive effect on governments across Europe to improve the capacity of civil society in various European countries and use these in Israel and Palestine to increase the strength of democracy and human rights.
Overall Objectives
- Increase dialogue among civil society actors, youth, and local authorities in Israel and Palestine;
- Increase capacity of CSOs in Israel and Palestine to promote Human Rights and Democratic Participation;
- Enhance collaboration among civil society actors, youth, and local authorities across Israel and Palestine;
Specific Objectives
Activities
- A1: Project Steering Committee;
A Project Steering committee was created and has been monitoring as well as offering feedback and ongoing communication with the partners and the lead applicant. An advisory board of esteemed members all of whom are experts in conflict resolution topics was created as well.
Advisory Board Members:
President, Dr Alecos Christakis, Founder, Institute for 21st Century Agoras.
Dr. Harry Anastasiou - Professor of International Peace and Conflict Studies in the Conflict Resolution Graduate Program and International Studies Program at Portland State University.
Dr. Hrach Gregorian - President of the Institute of World Affairs.
Mr. Marios Michaelides, Acting Head of Cyprus Intercultural Training Initiative.
- A2: Interactive online portal;
A website has been created with all relevant information about the project and the partner organisations as well as newsletters, informative material, publications, links, and various news articles. Also available on the website are all deliverables produced throughout the project (reports of the structured dialogue workshops, workshop reports).
Also created was a closed facebook group where participants can freely communicate with each other to exchange ideas, information, actions as well as keep in touch with each other on a personal level.
- A3: Structured dialogue workshops;
- A4: Creation of multi-stakeholder Action Groups;
- A5: Five trans-national Action Plan support workshops;
- A6: 10-day Training of Local Trainers;
- A7: Series of Basic Civil Society Strengthening Workshops;
- A8: Series of non-formal civil society action workshops;
- A9: Series of Advanced Civil Society Strengthening Workshops;
- A10: Ten Panel Discussions/ Public Roundtables; A11: Final Human Rights Conference in Cyprus
