News
Jovanović: Violence against civil society institutionalized in Republika Srpska
February 28, 2025. Written by: Uroš Jovanović, manager of the Program for Public Policy in Civic Initiatives Associations and foundations in the Republika Srpska entity will bear the label of agents of foreign influence if they provide funds for their work from abroad and if they advocate for better laws towards the institutions of this […]
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Anti-corruption protests in Serbia: An overview of the events and the institutions’ treatment of the protesters
Belgrade, February 28, 2025 REPORT: Anti-corruption protests in Serbia: Overview of events and the actions of institutions towards protesters In Novi Sad, the second largest city in Serbia, on November 1, 2024, the canopy of the recently reconstructed Railway Station fell. 15 people died. All over Serbia, citizen protests against corruption followed, demanding that the […]
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Analysis of public funding for gender equality: non-transparent funding and institutional apathy
The analysis of public funds for gender equality was carried out in the period from August 2024 to January 2025 as part of the project “Strengthening the transparency of funding from public sources through the analysis of phantom and GONGO associations”, which is jointly implemented by Civic Initiatives, the Balkan Research Network of Serbia (BIRN) […]
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Non-governmental organizations: The authorities in Serbia use the opportunity to deal with non-governmental organizations that have been pointing to corruption, law-breaking and human rights violations for years.
Joint statement of civil society organizations We strongly condemn today’s invasion of the premises of non-governmental organizations by armed police without a proper court order. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade announced today that the reason for the police raid in four civil society organizations was the suspicions “that were raised against USAID in […]
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ANNOUNCEMENT: Police raid in Civic Initiatives
Belgrade, February 25, 2025. Around 9:20 this morning, twenty police officers from the Criminal Police Directorate broke into the premises of Civic Initiatives, stating that they had a warrant from the Prosecutor’s Office to check the organization’s work, but they did not want to show the search warrant. At the same time, in the House […]
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ANALYSIS: Funds from opportunities and public procurement
Belgrade, February 18, 2025. The Citizens’ Initiative and BIRN Serbia have been following the implementation of various types of budget support for non-governmental organizations for years, and these findings, as well as proposals for improving the situation and eliminating irregularities, are being promoted within the wider coalition OKO (Open about tenders), of which Transparency Serbia […]
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Three freedoms under scrutiny: January 31 – February 13, 2025
Belgrade, February 14, 2025 Violation of basic human rights in SerbiaJanuary 31 – February 13, 2025 In spite of the fact that representatives of the authorities persistently try to present that the students’ demands have been met, the facts show otherwise. One of the student demands is to punish all those who attack the participants […]
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Decision on the suspension of cooperation with the legislative and executive authorities in Serbia
Since the beginning of the student protests, we have publicly and unequivocally supported all their demands. Since the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad on November 1 last year, we have been deeply shaken by the suffering of innocent people, the violence we are witnessing, as well as the actions of institutions that, instead […]
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ANALYSIS: Youth policy in focus – Open about competitions
The analysis “Youth policy in focus 2023” provides an overview of the state of youth policy in 25 cities and municipalities throughout Serbia. Through civil monitoring of public tenders, this publication reveals which local governments finance youth programs, which do not allocate a single dinar, but also what the practice of distributing funds looks like […]
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