Civic Solidarity Platform

Civic Solidarity Platform (CSP) is a coalition of more than 90 NGOs working to improve the human rights situation in Europe, Eurasia and the USA in the OSCE area. The platform provides a common space for these groups to share their experiences in research and advocacy and to find new channels of communication and improved methods of co-operation. It is intended to serve as a channel through which civic activists can build alliances, strengthen mutual support and solidarity, and improve their influence on national and international human rights policy.

The platform’s advocacy is primarily aimed at the OSCE and its institutions: the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights/ODIHR, OSCE Gender Unit, Conflict Prevention Centre, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, High Commissioner on National Minorities/HCNM and the member states. Every year, the CSP is present during the Human Dimension Implementation Meetings (HDIM) in Warsaw to draw attention to current human rights-related challenges in the OSCE countries with the help of side events organized by the member organizations. The CSP also organizes the annual Parallel Civil Society Conference on the margins of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting.

Austausch has been a member of the Civic Solidarity Platform since 2016.

Since 2021 the Coordination Committee has been chaired by the Nobel Prize winner Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine). The following topics were the focus of attention for the project supported by the Federal Foreign Office:

Challenging the shrinking space for civil society in the Western Balkans;
Climate change and human rights in the OSCE region;
Enforced disappearances as part of the OSCE commitment on prevention nand eradication of torture;
Russian-Ukrainian human rights dialogue in times of crisis;
Women’s rights in the context of forcedly displaced women and care work migration;
Fighting torture and ill-treatment in the OSCE region;
Monitoring threats to the activities of civil activists and human rights defenders in the post-Soviet space of the OSCE region;
Challenging the misuse of anti-extremism and counter-terrorism legislation affecting human rights in the OSCE region.

Project donors

The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

Austausch e.V.

Contact

Jacob Riemer

Project Manager

Tel. +49 30 446 68 00, [email protected]

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