CLIMBIZ Challenge 2013

The CLIMBIZ Challenge 2013 – Appply now!

The Black Sea Climate and Business Initiative (CLIMBIZ) is a regional partnership for action on sustainable development, initiated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation and BSEC. CLIMBIZ supports BSEC to mainstream climate change and green economy, and to facilitate a green and inclusive marketplace in the Black Sea region. Please find the website link here: www.climbiz.org
As part of the CLIMBIZ Initiative, a Scaling Challenge for Social and Environmental Enterprises was launched. The CLIMBIZ Challenge – implemented in partnership with the UNEP, UNDP and IUCN founded SEED Initiative – supports innovative small-scale and locally driven enterprises in the Black Sea region which integrate social and environmental benefits into their business model. The goal of the Challenge is to identify outstanding social and environmental entrepreneurs with proven solutions that combine environmental protection with inclusion/poverty reduction, and to support them to scale and replicate their activities across the Black Sea region.
For details on the Scaling Challenge visit the CIMBIZ website by clicking here
Deadline for Application is the 5th of April 2013.
Eligible countries are: Albania, Georgia, Russia, Armenia, Greece, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine.
Participating ventures can have a non-for-profit, hybrid or for-profit business model.

World Water Day, 22 March

World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. In 2013, in reflection of the International Year of Water Cooperation, World Water Day is also dedicated to the theme of cooperation around water and is coordinated by UNESCO in collaboration with UNECE and UNDESA on behalf of UN-Water.

Read more on past World Water Day celebrations >>

No Hate Speech Movement kicks off at the Council of Europe

An overflow of xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination inundates cyberspace: Hate Speech online has recently turned into a major form of human rights abuse, with serious consequences both online and offline. Spreading, inciting, justifying or promoting expressions of hatred amongst young people on internet has become a pressing challenge for today’s societies.

Prejudice based on aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism, hostility against minorities, bigotry on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, anti-Semitism, misogyny, christianophobia, cyber-bullying, anti-gypsyism and islamophobia: the potential negative impact of online communication on democratic development gives several reasons for concern.

The Council of Europe’s answer to these compelling threats is the Youth project on combating Hate Speech Online, an initiative aiming at fighting racism and discrimination in the online articulation of hate speech, by equipping young people and youth organisations with the competences necessary to recognise and act against such human rights violations.

Bloggers and activists will be trained at the European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest, with an innovative capacity building approach on activating sane social networks’ communities.

Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland will be the first to launch the No Hate Speech Movement on Friday, March 22^nd, at the Palais de l’Europe (in the foyer of the Hemicycle). The event is open to the accredited press (Live web streaming)

This raise awareness operation to change attitudes and mobilise people to uphold human rights online will be combined with national youth campaigns, starting in 33 Council of Europe member states, with EEA Norway Grants as strategic partner and voluntary contributions from Finland and the French-speaking Community of Belgium.

Invitatie la voluntariat: Saptamana ALTfeL

Flash Eurobarometer „Europeans’ Engagement in Participatory Democracy”,EESC

Flash Eurobarometer: Citizens engaged in participatory democracy

Still some way to go for citizens to become engaged in European public debates   While Europe faces economic and social challenges, EU citizens continue to involve themselves in participatory democracy activities, including signing petitions and becoming active members of non-governmental organisations, mainly at local and national level. A Flash Eurobarometer measuring citizens’ engagement shows that Europeans trust civil society organisations to influence policies and make a difference in the life of their communities.   The survey was commissioned by the European Commission in response to a request from the EESC.   Even against the backdrop of the crisis, with growing unemployment and austerity in most parts of Europe, the Flash Eurobarometer shows that people are involved in and/or trust their community organisations. Relatively few people are, on average, members of civil society organisations. Yet the survey shows that there is a high-level of trust towards civil society among Europeans, who are confident that non-governmental organisations can play a political role and influence policies. However, civil society organisations are regarded in the survey as more likely to influence decision-making at local and national level (75% and 70% respectively) than at the level of the EU (53%).   Key findings – (showing an average of EU 27 – figures will of course vary from country to country) A majority (59%) of people think non-governmental organisations share their interests and values. A majority of respondents (54%) think that voting in EU elections or joining an NGO can influence political decision-making and even more respondents (7 out of 10) think that voting in local or national elections is an effective way to influence political decisions. A third (34%) of respondents say that they have signed a petition in the last two years. 24% have conveyed their views on public issues to an elected representative at local/regional level, 10% at national level and 4% at EU level.   The full report is available here.

Green light for the Youth Guarantee

On Thursday 28th February, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) reached an agreement on the European Commission’s proposal for establishing a Youth Guarantee. The EPSCO Council recommended that all young Europeans under 25 are offered a quality-job, continued education, training or an apprenticeship scheme within four months of finishing their studies. The International Labour Organization estimated €21 million of investment is needed to financially support Youth Guarantee programmes. While Youth unemployment in Europe stands at 5.7 million, costing the economy €153 billion a year, the EPSCO conclusions committed to only guaranteeing financial support of up to €6 billion. This level of investment will most likely be insufficient and it will not allow the scheme to tackle many of the root causes of youth unemployment in Europe. Implementing the Youth Guarantee requires all member states to establish strong partnerships with all stakeholders, including youth support services and youth organisations to ensure early intervention and action.

EPSCO opted for a gradual approach for the implementation of this programme, which raises the question of how the youth guarantee will be implemented in the member states. The European Youth Forum has been extensively working on the Youth Guarantee for many years and will continue to calls on member states to attribute sufficient resources to the scheme on the national level.

The Youth Forum welcomes the involvement of young people and youth organisations in designing and further developing the Youth Guarantee schemes, as a positive best practice to tailor services to the real needs young people.

www.youthforum.org

The European Convention on Human Rights

Nurturinghuman rights

For more than 60 years, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights has worked for the respect of fundamental freedoms.  It has made us aware that intolerance and discrimination are unacceptable.

The Andorran Chairmanship of the Council of Europe is launching a campaign in support of the values promoted by the Convention, in the firm belief that a Europe of “living together in harmony” in which everyone’s rights are upheld is a real possibility.

LET US READ the Convention and make sure it is put into practice!

The European Convention on Human Rights

Online language learning tool

A unique language learning tool, developed by lecturers from 9 institutions in 8 EU countries is now available in Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian and Spanish. The original www.eurocatering.org  was launched in 2008. Since then, with more than 10,000 learners, the partners have worked on updating the website and launched version 2.0 on 01 February 2013.

Not only do we now provide 12 languages, but the language learning is no longer dependent on the mother tongue and you can learn any of the 12 languages from any of the 12 available languages. More pictures have been added, so that nearly all exercises are colourfully illustrated. The system has been adapted to any browser or computing system. The second part of the course (The Tray) has been upgraded with an audio and illustrated dictionary, updated socio-cultural information about work in the partner countries, supplementary material for learners and/or teachers/trainers. In the near future, more exercises will be added as well as assessment tools (learning outcomes, testing materials, RLD).

The next step in our project development is to provide learners with a new sector: Reception, in 11 languages (available October 2013). Do you work in the hotel industry? Or do you want to have a go at learning Kitchen Italian, Restaurant Finnish or any one of the 12 languages EuroCatering offers? This is the website for you! Simply sign up at http://www.eurocatering.org. It’s free and freely accessible. http://www.eurocatering.org is a European Commission funded project which was awarded the European Language Label of the Labels by the EU Commission in 2012.

For more information, contact one of the partners via www.eurocatering.org  or the project coordinator christian.goethals@helha.be