Open Society Foundations Call for Proposals for Countering Anti-Gypsyism and Discrimination Affecting Roma (Win up to $100,000)

Deadline: July 28, 2014

Open Society Foundations announces the call for proposals for Countering Anti-Gypsyism and Discrimination Affecting Roma. Interested applicants are invited to apply.

Over the last decade, there has been a rise in experiences and perceptions of discrimination and xenophobia in Western Europe in which attitudes, behaviors, and policies have reinforced one another. Xenophobic actors have taken advantage of the economic crisis and used minorities, in particular Muslims, immigrants, and Roma, as scapegoats. Contemporary anti-Gypsyism stems from historical discrimination against Roma which often takes a form of dehumanization and of institutional racism.

This call takes the term anti-Gypsyism as a type of racist ideology of racial or cultural superiority implying negative stereotypes, prejudices, fears, and myths about the Roma, as well as violence, hate speech, exploitation, direct, and indirect discrimination against them. Thus, anti-Gypsyism includes all those attitudes, behaviors, and policies that reject, exclude or deny equal and fair treatment to persons based on real or perceived Roma background, or national origins which are associated with that.

The call aims to support innovative approaches addressing the problems arising in one of the following areas:

• Discrimination in housing
• The full access to civil and political rights
• Monitoring, reporting, and advocacy on hate speech and hate crimes designed to raise awareness on the reality of anti-Gypsyism;
• The spread of anti-Gypsyism through traditional and new media and the role that they play in confirming or propagating stereotypes;
• Multiple discrimination

Benefits:

• The total amount of funds dedicated to this call is $500,000 for projects of up to one year.
• The minimum amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $100,000.

Eligibility:

• The applicant must be nonprofit-oriented non-governmental organizations, legally established in a priority or eligible country.
  • Priority countries are: France, Germany, Italy, and the UK.
  • Eligible countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and The Netherlands.
• Transnational or pan-European partnerships are welcome.
• The following are ineligibility criteria
  • Individual research and scholarships
  • Stand-alone training, conferences, or general public awareness raising activities without an advocacy strategy and a concrete goal;
  • Party political affiliated activities;
  • Open Society works to guarantee freedom of expression. It will refrain from supporting projects that call for removal of content from the public sphere without a court order (or without the intervention of an independent authority).

Application procedure:

• Submit a concept note of no more than five pages to Izabella Bojko at izabella.bojko@opensocietyfoundations.org.

For more information, click here.