MINELRES: EUMAP News & Featured Articles

[minelres@lists.microlink.lv]

Original sender: EUMAP <EUMAP@osi.hu>


EUMAP.ORG NEWS
----------------------------------
EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM
OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE
---------------------------------- 

24 JULY 2006

1. ADVOCACY: ARE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS ANY GOOD AT IT? (AND WHAT
EXACTLY IS IT ANYWAY?) New Featured articles and results of the EUMAP
survey.

2. LAUNCH OF MEDIA FOLLOWUP PROJECT. Following up on the "Television
across Europe" reports: New project launched at Budapest conference.

Don't like this plain text version? Read the fancy version on 
http://www.eumap.org/journal/newsletter_jul06.pdf ! 

Thank you for forwarding this newsletter! 


************************************ 

1. ADVOCACY: ARE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS ANY GOOD AT IT? (AND WHAT
EXACTLY IS IT ANYWAY?) New eumap.org Featured articles and results of
the EUMAP survey.

Used in the context of civil society organisations (CSOs), the term
advocacy has become something of a catch-all term, encompassing a wide
range of activities carried out by NGOs. Advocacy can be broadly defined
as activism, or campaigning, around a particular issue. However, its
precise definition and content are still an evolving concept.

To open a broad discussion on the theme of advocacy, EUMAP called for
papers on the theme of CSOs and advocacy, and asked readers to take part
in an informal survey.

This week, the first of two rounds of Feature articles on the subject
was published on the EUMAP site at
http://www.eumap.org/journal/features/2006/advocacy, under the header
"Lessons from the field; deriving good practice from on-the-ground
challenges".

In total, six papers will analyse the opportunities and pitfalls that
advocacy work presents to CSOs, including both overall analyses and
presentations of individual case studies and examples of good practice. 

Of the three papers in this first round, two focus on advocacy work in
the field of disability and health rights. The papers are complemented
by a review of the results of the EUMAP survey by Miriam Anati.

_____________________________________ 

ADVOCACY: RESULTS OF AN EUMAP SURVEY

Miriam Anati, Advocacy and Communications, EUMAP

We asked, what do you understand by "advocacy"? What is the key to
effective advocacy? How is advocacy organised in your organisation?
Miriam Anati reviewed the responses and identified the main points they
highlighted - providing EUMAP's own take on each. We hope those takes in
turn will spark further input, and she would be pleased to receive any
comments or responses to the article.

_____________________________________ 

GONG: ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE
GONG Team

The Croatian CSO GONG undertook several election monitoring campaigns,
encouraging citizens to participate in the elections and working to
safeguard the legality and transparency of those elections. A reflection
on its experiences can serve to formulate lessons learned regarding
successful advocacy work. This paper outlines what GONG did, how it did
it, and what results it achieved, in order to identify effective
advocacy strategies.

_____________________________________ 

SUPPORTING USER LED ADVOCACY IN MENTAL HEALTH
Paul Cutler, Robert Hayward and Gabriela Tanasan

Mental health advocacy provides a fascinating test case for the wider
role of advocacy in civil society. Mental health issues are likely to
affect up to 1 in 4 people, and there is a little known but vibrant
network of service user led mental health initiatives. This paper
explores their experiences, and presents lessons for both advocates, and
governments and international organisations, illustrating them by the
experience of user group work in Campulung-Moldovenesc, Romania.

_____________________________________ 

THE NGO ROLE IN ADVOCACY FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES IN BULGARIA
Prof. Lucia Ilieva - Club "Sustainable Development of Civil Society"

The treatment of people with disabilities in Bulgaria fails to meet
relevant international standards. There is a need for radical change in
societal attitudes to enable them to participate actively in society.
CSOs have a vital role to play in this process, and this paper
highlights the main advocacy goals Bulgarian CSOs have been tackling.
Specifically, it describes three projects that illustrate the different
focuses of NGO advocacy in Bulgaria.


************************************ 

2. LAUNCH OF MEDIA FOLLOWUP PROJECT. Following up on the "Television
across Europe" reports: new project launched at Budapest conference.

The EUMAP reports on 'Television across Europe: regulation, policy and
independence' were launched in Brussels in October 2005. Since then, the
reports have been translated into the languages of all the countries
covered by the monitoring, with national launch events organised in 17
of the countries. The reports have attracted wide media coverage, and
there is a strong interest among all those involved in the project to
ensure that the reports' findings make an impact in the longer term.
 
EUMAP's involvement in this project has now drawn to a close. However,
the Open Society Institute's Network Media Program (NMP) has now
initiated a followup project, which will build upon the findings of the
reports.

The followup project will focus on the main recommendations of the
reports, at the national and international levels, in particular in the
following areas: new technologies (especially digitalisation), public
broadcasting, private broadcasting (especially transparency of media
ownership), and broadcasting regulation. The main partners in the
followup project will be the reporters and partner organisations who
were involved in the preparation and launch of the initial set of
reports. Further details of the followup project will be made available
on eumap.org over the coming months.

_____________________________________ 

TELEVISON ACROSS EUROPE: FOLLOW-UP CONFERENCE, 8-9 JUNE 2006
 
The NMP followup project was launched at a conference in Budapest on 8-9
June. Country reporters, editors and representatives of partner
organisations of the "Television across Europe" project attended to
discuss with representatives of relevant international and national
organisations how best to promote the realisation of the reports'
recommendations. 

Conference documents are available on eumap.org at
http://www.eumap.org/advocacy/advoc_eumap/TV_followup/ :
- Conference report
- List of participants
- Follow-up activities - national and international advocacy
- Main recommendations of the "Television Across Europe" reports
- Relevant documents provided by participants


************************************ 

ABOUT EUMAP 

eumap.org is an online centre for comprehensive resources, news, and
analyses, committed to delivering information on, and generating debate
about, human rights and the rule of law in Europe.

eumap.org is the website of the Open Society Institute's EU Monitoring
and Advocacy Program. 

To find out more about the Program view: http://www.eumap.org/about 


************************************

---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using Endymion MailMan.
http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ http://www.microlink.com/