Tag: partnership

Improving partnership with Čovekoljublje

Posted on by Milutin

DPNSEE Vice-President Nebojša Đurasović and Executive Director Milutin Milošević visited “Čovekoljublje” (Philanthropy), the charitable foundation of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Foundation performs emergency (humanitarian) and development programmes. Philanthropy’s basic principle is respect of human rights, reflected in providing assistance to all those in need, regardless of their race, gender, nationality or religious affiliation. It cooperates and is supported by number of institutions: ministries, province and municipal authorities, health care and social welfare institutions, institutes for protection of children and youth deprived of parental care, and series of civil society organisations.

In scope of it’s the Health care and social welfare programmes, Philanthropy initiated a programme providing expertise and voluntary psycho-social support for people living with HIV/AIDS – PLHIV in 2003 with the blessing of Patriarch Pavle. This programme’s main purpose is suppression of social isolation and discrimination of PLHIV, as well as development of voluntary work and public awareness on presence of HIV/AIDS within various social groups.

For some time already, DPNSEE and its member organisations from Serbia actively cooperate with Philanthropy. The visit was an opportunity to exchange about activities and plans with project coordinator Aleksandra Božinović Knežević and generate ides for future cooperation.

Consultations in the Office for Combating Drugs

Posted on by Milutin

The Office for Combating Drugs of the Government of the Republic of Serbia held a meeting with civil society organisations on 25 February 2019. Besides 11 organisations which signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Office in 2018 (including DPNSEE and 3 of its member organisations), 4 new organisations which established formal cooperation with the Office also joined the meeting.

Most of the meeting was dedicated to the proposals for amendments to the Criminal Law related to drug-related offenses. DPNSEE sent a formal proposal to the Ministry of Justice, the Working group for changes of the Criminal Law it created, The Office for Combating Drugs and the Office for support to the civil society organisations proposing decriminalisation of drug use and possession for personal use and protection of civil society organisations providing services to drug users. The proposal is available in Serbian following this link>>>.

The proposal was appraised as a very good, clear, concise and evidence based, but concerns were expressed that it may not be supported due to current situation in the country and increased conservatism in relation to the drug use. The participants emphasized the need to establish a system of accreditation of civil society organisations services. It should include all elements of their work, from prevention, harm reduction, treatment to social services and rehabilitation.

The Office will, through their representative, present civil society proposals to the Working group for changes of the Criminal Law.

The participation of civil society organisations representatives in the Working group to prepare the new Action plan for implementing the National Drug Strategy was appraised as a very good example of partnership. The Office will propose full involvement of the civil society in designing the new Strategy.

The participants at the meeting also got acquainted with the current activities of the Office on Drugs Policy, exchanged experiences on the previous cooperation defined in the Memorandum and made suggestions for improving it.

Meeting of two SEE civil society organisations networks

Posted on by Milutin

On 5 February 2018, DPNSEE welcomed in our office Amarildo Fecanji, the Executive co-director of the LGBTI Equal Rights Association ERA for an introductory meeting of the two civil society organisations networks of in South East Europe. Vice-President Nebojša Đurasović, Executive Director Milutin Milošević and Communication officer and office manager Irena Molnar represented DPNSEE.

The first contact of two networks happened during the Dialogue between civil society and donors „Averting a health and rights crisis in South Eastern Europe, Building partnership to sustain HIV prevention Services for Key populations“, organised by OSF, where both directors of the networks were presenting their views on possibilities for cooperation at the panel „Bridging the HIV and human rights; how LGBT, sex worker, drug user and PLHIV communities work together to strengthen national and regional advocacy?“. Recognition of the potential for cooperation between the two networks initiated second meeting where we used opportunity to inform each other about activities of both networks and identify areas of common action.

During a pleasant and informative meeting, several areas of join interest were identified as potential for collaboration, including but not limited:

  • Respecting the human rights of the key populations and services offered to vulnerable and discriminated groups
  • Advocating for improving state of access to health of key populations
  • Approaching, together with other SEE COS networks, the DG Near to convince them to extend support to cooperation building in SEE
  • Research and mapping the state of drug use related issues within the LGBTQI communities
  • Advocating for specific programmes related to LGBTQI and drugs such as harm reduction, including chemsex and other.