From February 2021 to end of July 2021, the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance, and its regional project “Strengthening access to justice through non-judicial redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in the Eastern Partnership countries”, is supporting five national projects by civil society organisations in Armenia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine aimed at combating discrimination, favouring inclusion of groups at risk of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes, and raising awareness among vulnerable communities and the general public about redress to discrimination.

Learn more about the projects below:

• Combating discrimination on the grounds of disability in Armenia, project by UNISON NGO in Armenia

Persons with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable communities in Armenia. They face either direct or indirect discrimination in all major fields of life: education, employment, sports, recreation, culture etc. The vast majority of state facilities, cultural venues and other public spaces are physically inaccessible to people with reduced mobility. There is no accessible public transportation for such people. Especially vulnerable are girls and women with disabilities who are subject to double discrimination – both as disabled and as females. One of the major reasons for discrimination on the grounds of disability is a lack of awareness of existing legal mechanisms to protect themselves from discrimination, as well as low awareness of what discrimination is. The project is aimed at filling this gap and thus at contributing to the "battle" against discrimination in all its forms.

The key activities and events of the project are: survey among people with disabilities, study of the best international practices/guidelines on anti-discrimination, three workshops on different types of discrimination, a TV program, publication of a booklet, production of 3 video messages featuring people with disabilities and a press conference. It is expected that the project implementation will contribute to the formation of the "zero tolerance to discrimination on the grounds of disability" in Armenia and will hopefully bring to the substantive debates on the relevant legislation and procedures. Unison NGO will implement this project in close cooperation with the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.

• Empowering the transgender community to facilitate their access to justice in Armenia, project by the Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO

The project aims at empowering and building the capacity of young Transgender people on human rights and fundamental freedoms, protection mechanisms from hate speech, hate crime and discrimination, advocacy and campaigning for the safety and well-being of Transgender people in Armenia. With this project, the NGO will train the Transgender community young representatives on self-protection mechanisms from hate speech, hate crimes and discrimination, equip them with advocacy and campaigning skills for human rights and equality, establish a dialogue and alliances between Transgender community and NGO representatives to combat discrimination more effectively through joint cooperation and active civic participation. The activities are also directed to impact and raise the public understanding about Transgender issues by increasing visibility of the community and breaking the norms and stereotypes about them.

“Right Side” Human Rights Defender NGO assures that this project is a step forward for increasing the well-being, harmonious and secure life of Transgender people and for contributing to the strengthening of democracy and equality in Armenia.

• Supporting Roma communities to fight human rights violations, project by Latcho Drome Roma Center, Ukraine

From February to July 2021, the Lacho Drome Roma Center will engage in building local network of mediators in 4 towns in 2 Ukrainian regions (Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk). The project goal is to train 8 Roma rights mediators in 4 settlements to equip them with human rights knowledge, mediation and counselling skills so they collect data on human rights violations and advise Rome people how to solve them. Project also aims to set up a channel of local communications between mediators with local representatives of public authorities and the Ombudsman legal representatives to ensure timely reporting of human rights abuses and their prompt investigation. During project implementation, mediators will collect and report information about Roma rights violations, empower local community members helping them to understand their human rights and build connections with local authorities reporting all violations and monitoring its investigation.

• Protecting LGBT people against hate crimes in Ukraine, project by the LGBT Human Rights NGO Nash Mir

The project will first collect information about the potential hate crimes that LGBT people have experiences in Ukraine. Second, the project will submit this data to international organisations, for monitoring purposes, and engage in advocacy actions towards law enforcement agencies in Ukraine. As a second part of the project, the NGO will develop awareness raising video clips for empowering the LGBT community.

• Raising awareness of young people in relation to discrimination and hate speech, project by "MilleniuM" Training and Development Institute in the Republic of Moldova

This project aims to strengthen the capacity of youth workers from youth centers to organize activities with young people based promoting human rights, combating discrimination and bullying between young people. Thanks to the project, youth centres in the Republic of Moldova will have a better quality educational activities for young people all across the Republic of Moldova. The NGO will organise a Training Course for Youth Workers in Human Rights Education with the aim to strengthen the capacity of youth workers to organize human rights education activities for young people with a view to combat discrimination and bullying. The course targets 20 youth workers active in the youth centres opened by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of Republic of Moldova in partnership with UNFPA, which are also supporting the course. The training course will include also a practice phase for participants with follow-up activities designed to reach 500 young people on topics of youth participation, human rights, diversity, active citizenship, combating discrimination.

Youth work and youth centre have the capacity to outreach young people in their communities and through human rights education to increase their competences to promote and defend human rights, identify and combat discrimination, make use of the existent remedies in the Republic of Moldova, but as well to actively advocate for equality, diversity and interculturality in their communities and beyond.