Human Rights in Europe & Central Asia
The Bureau fuer Zeitgeschehen supported Amnesty International in developing and implementing a thematically and organizationally coordinated strategy for Europe and Central Asia in close cooperation with the respective country sections.
The “authoritarian backlash” since the 2010s has put universal human rights under considerable pressure. Even in open and liberal societies, originally guaranteed civil and human rights are not a matter of course anymore. In the process of Amnesty International’s (AI) global restructuring, the Bureau für Zeitgeschehen (BfZ) has supported the renowned human rights organisation in developing a new strategy for Europe and Central Asia. A core element is the global campaign ‘The Right to Protest’.
The new regional structure of AI merges the previously independent regional departments of Europe and Central Asia into one unit (ECA). This new meta-unit is the coordinating umbrella for 56 Amnesty country chapters. In order to ensure the protection of human rights in such a wide range of social and political realities, AI commissioned the BfZ to provide methodological support for a participatory process developing a new five-year strategy for the newly created ECA regional section. Guiding themes of the project were: Gender, Migration, Civic Space as well as the conceptualisation of the global right to protest campaign. AI leaders from all 56 countries participated in the workshop series.
Link to the Amnesty campaign “Right to Protest”