Open Society Institute’s Call for Proposals for Equality and Justice under the Rule of Law

The Open Society Institute (OSI) is requesting proposals preferably from women-led NGOs from countries listed below under its International Women’s Program (IWP) for protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls in areas where there is an absence of principles of good governance and respect for rule of law. The focus areas under which the proposals can be submitted are as follows:

1) Reducing discrimination and violence against women

IWP seeks to support initiatives that improve the status of women by:

• Strengthening legal frameworks and enforcement mechanisms that focus on women’s rights
• Strengthening civil society’s capacity to hold governments accountable to implement laws
• Increasing women’s capacity to understand and claim rights

2) Strengthening women’s access to justice

IWP seeks to support initiatives that strengthen judicial response to women and reduce the obstacles to access by ensuring:

• Legal aid, counsel and assistance is available and resourced
• Judges, lawyers and prosecutors understand and apply gender justice
• Transitional justice mechanisms are equitable and inclusive of women

3) Increasing women’s role as decision-makers and leaders

IWP seeks to support initiatives that encourage and increase women’s role as decision-makers in a number of arenas including the following:

• Peace and reconciliation processes
• Electoral and legislative processes
• Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Security Sector Reform (SSR) and reconstruction programs
• Local/indigenous independent nongovernmental organizations or initiatives that link local and international organizations

Proposals are solicited for the following countries only within the following focus areas only:

Asia: Nepal (focus area 2 only)

Europe: Bosnia & Herzegovina (focus areas 1 and 2)

Latin America: Colombia (focus areas 1, 2 and 3) and Guatemala (focus areas 1, 2 and 3)

Middle East and North Africa: Iraq (focus areas 1, 2 and 3) and Occupied Palestinian Territories (focus areas 1 and 2).

Proposals need to be submitted in the given template, which can be downloaded from the OSI website. The deadline to submit them is 15 January 2010. For more information, visit this link.

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