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The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) is a non-profit human rights watchdog NGO established in Budapest, Hungary in 1994. The HCLU operates independently of political parties, the state or any of its institutions. Its aim is to promote the case of fundamental rights and principles laid down by the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary and by international conventions. Generally it has the goal of building and strengthening the civil society and rule of law in Hungary and the CEE region. The HCLU strives to educate citizens about their basic human rights and freedoms, and takes stand against undue interference and misuse of power by those in positions of authority. Its main activities are: Legal advocacy: The HCLU initiates the formulation of new legislation that falls within its competence, as well as the modification of existing legislation and the changing of law enforcement practices. Strategic litigation and legal aid: The HCLU provides pro bono legal aid to citizens who suffer human rights abuses. The HCLU is also the most prominent litigator in the field of freedom of information and freedom of expression, helping journalists with legal advice and representation on a daily basis. Public education: The HCLU informs the general public of important legal cases on its website, its blogs and through the media, as well as in specifically designed informational brochures. The HCLU also organizes conferences and public debates, as well as trainings for different stakeholders. Focus of the HCLU's activities Patient rights: rights to health care, freedom of choice, informed consent, refusal of treatment, access to medical records, substituted decision making, advance directive, right to complaint, and to participate in decision making related to health care Right to self-determination: abortion, euthanasia Right to informational privacy: protection of medical data, disclosure of medical data, protection of personal data in the media, access to public information Right to freedom of expression: protection of basic information rights Right to political representation: NGO participation in the legislation Drug policy: promote alternatives to the prohibition of drugs AIDS policy: rights of people living with HIV The HCLU helps patients to freely exercise their legal rights related to medical treatment: the right to informed consent, the right to refuse treatment, the right to have access to their medical files, and the right to confidentiality in the patients' relationship with their physicians. The organization is governed by the principle that citizens have a right to control the use of their personal data and that they should have access to documents of public interest. The HCLU rejects the policy of subjecting drug dependent people and occasional drug users to criminal sanctions. We believe that increasing police rigor is not the right way of addressing the drug issue. Instead, support is needed for propagating information, and for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. The organization monitors cases where the rights of individuals held in closed institutions are restricted (those detained by police, the arrested, the imprisoned, and the inmates of psychiatric institutions) as well as the powers of authorities to restrict the liberty of citizens, and the manner in which these powers are used in daily practice. The HCLU consistently monitors the formulation of new pieces of legislation that fall within its competence; right from the initial conception of a draft law down to its enactment. Before preparing a statement, the organization seeks counsel of eminent experts of the topic concerned: jurists, lawyers and physicians. We time the production of each of our statements to the day when parliamentary discussion of the concerned topic opens; and our statements are sent directly and especially to politicians, journalists and experts concerned. In the annex attached to our statements, we acquaint the Members of Parliament involved in the topic with our commentaries on, and recommended alternative wording of several articles of that bill. The HCLU publishes a Policy Paper Series. Each issue sums up the liberal position on a legal policy issue involving a fundamental right. It surveys the Hungarian scene, and outlines the main policy aim of the HCLU in that field. The Policy Papers are issued in Hungarian and in English as well. The organization systematically observes the activities of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the WHO, the UN and the World Medical Association. We collect recommendations and norms that such organizations issue concerning patient/provider relationship and medical interventions. We make these documents accessible in Hungarian. (For example, we have arranged the Hungarian translation and publishing of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine of the Council of Europe and the Amsterdam Declaration of the WHO.) It is our aim to achieve adjustment of the Hungarian legal system to the most recent international legal norms, which means that laws and other legal instruments need adjustment. It is our policy to recommend to the competent authorities that Hungary should join the relevant international conventions. Members and advisors of the HCLU The highest body of the HCLU is the General Assembly. The general meeting selects the members of the Executive Committee. The members of the Executive Committee administer the daily work of the HCLU, they elect the Executive Director of the Union, and they may recommend the adoption of new members for the General Assembly. The members of the Executive Committee and the permanent staff of the HCLU carry the daily affairs of the organization. They discharge the publicly announced services, and they formulate the HCLU's position on key issues of legal policy. A Board of Advisors assists the work of the Executive Committee. The Board consists of renowned jurists, lawyers and physicians with whom we have evolved daily working relations. It is the duty of the Board of Supervisors - whose members are elected by the General Assembly - to supervise the activities and financial operation of the Executive Committee. Resources and accountability Since the HCLU is an independent non-profit organization, financial resources are largely provided by private foundations (eg. Open Society Institute, Trust for Civil Society in Central & Eastern Europe), donors (eg: Tiara Ltd., Concorde Securities Ltd.) and more and more often by private individuals. Its annual income increases every year, reaching 300 million HUF in 2011. The HCLU has 15 full-time and 15 part-time employees and dozens of volunteers working on 9 different programs. Innovations and achievements The HCLU has a variety of highly successful tools and a complex strategy to promote the case of human rights and to help those who are defenseless. Beyond classical legal defense methods (legal advocacy, legal counseling, strategic litigation), the organization maintains five websites and its Video Advocacy Program has created a unique genre of documentaries, which are regularly screened abroad by a wide public. The staff of the Program has conducted trainings in all parts of the world, while their movies frequently win awards at international film festivals. The HCLU is regularly present in the most popular Hungarian and foreign media platforms, and prestigious international organizations (eg. UN, Venice Commission, Parliamentary Committee of Council of Europe) request its opinion on certain issues. In 2009, the HCLU won a freedom of information case at the European Court of Human Rights. The right of access to state-held information as part of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been formally recognized, as reflected in the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. For the first time in the Court's practice, it declared that withholding information needed to participate in public debate on matters of public importance may violate the freedom of expression, and by doing so, gave a new, extended interpretation of the concept of freedom of expression. The HCLU has led a number of successful citizen mobilization campaigns in recent years. The organization has more than 30,000 fans, followers and supporters on social media platforms. Today, the HCLU has become the most significant public interest NGO in Hungary in the fields of freedom of speech, freedom of information and drug policy. The HCLU's Roma Program uses innovative methods such as Skype based legal aid service and video advocacy. Awards SozialMarie Award - 2012 - Unruhe Private Foundation (Austria) The Year's Pro Bono Lawyer - 2011 - Hungarian Chamber of Lawyers, PILnet (Hungary) IV. Roma Documentary Film Festival - 2011 - Depok Foundation (Hungary) Erste Award for Social Integration - 2011 - Erste Foundation (Austria) Kreativ Magazin Online Video Contest - 2011 - Kreativ Magazin (Hungary) Andras Fay Award - 2008 - OTP Bank Plc. (Hungary) SozialMarie Awards - 2007 - Unruhe Private Foundation (Austria) Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award - 2007 - Dr. Attila Peterfalvi, parliamentary comissioner of data protection and freedom of information NGO of the year - 2004 - NIOK Foundation (Hungary)

New Creation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on a mission to creatively counteract human trafficking with a local heart + global approach. We work with more than 200 partner organizations from 5 continents to create dignified work for those rescued from, or vulnerable to trafficking around the world. We believe that education + job creation are powerful tools to overcome trafficking, which is why our team is committed to continuing to develop concepts that make freedom possible. But we also know that in order to truly solve this issue, we need to both help survivors + get in front of the issue - which is why we also provide prevention education to communities, businesses, families, and youth on the signs and dangers of human trafficking.

We are a grassroots community where Jews, Muslims, and all are welcome. We build relationships to stand against hate and violence through shared values and social action. What we share is more powerful than what divides us: PEACE We envision a city, country, and world where no one is feared, marginalized, hated, attacked, and killed because of who they are. We challenge prejudice, bigotry, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination, and oppression. We stand in solidarity with our neighbors by speaking out against hateful incitement, interpersonal and institutional violence. LEARNING We encourage curiosity and education for transformation. We reflect on our identities by celebrating Muslim and Jewish traditions. We commit to building respectful relationships to gain knowledge. GIVING BACK We mobilize our community to make an impact through service and volunteering. We build on the momentum of social justice and civil rights movements. We believe in freedom, justice, and dignity for all, including the most disadvantaged.

ASYLUM PROTECTION CENTER (APC) was founded in 2007 and from the very beginning of the asylum system in Serbia (2008) has been providing legal, psychosocial and interaction/integration aid to exiles, asylum seekers and persons who have been granted asylum or other protection in the Republic of Serbia (with special focus to children and youth- providing legal, psychosocial, interaction/integration aid to minors, unaccompanied minors and youth). Activities of the APC as grass root organization are reflected through our strong presence and engagement at local levels in local communities, in order to establish a dialogue and interaction between asylum seekers/refugees/exiles and local citizens; primarily through the organization of public local events, exhibitions, fairs, asylum corners, interaction/integration, creative and other workshops, round tables, work of APC local networks of volunteers and APC interns, cultural mediators support and other events and activities in local communities, as well as through numerous collaborations with local governments, organizations, institutions, schools, local cultural and youth centers. APC political scientists and researchers actively work in the field of research and advocacy, using extensive APC experience and field data, in order to get to the root of issues and problems of the migration, asylum system and refugees, strengthening and spreading information to the wider general and local public and experts, advocating and fighting to reduce prejudice and xenophobia in local and general public thus building more tolerant and inclusive society in Serbia. Since its founding, lawyers, psychologists, pedagogues, social workers and translators that make up the APC/CZA team have worked first hand with the refugees and migrants in the first asylum centers. Since the opening of the Balkan route, our team can be found across all reception and transit centers, parks, buses, railways stations, at improvised shelters in open air surroundings by the border, in suburbs, on the streets, in forests and in institutions for youth. We have reunified families, discovered smuggling routes and found children who had been lost. Our team continues to protect persons from discrimination and violence, while simultaneously reporting abuse that are endured by vulnerable groups of migrants and refugees. With the help of Social work centers we have placed children in foster families, enabled the healthy births of children, provided birth certificates for refugee babies born in Serbia and reunified children with their families we have ultimately helped wherever we could. APC/CZA has established one of the first mobile applications in Europe - "Asylum in Serbia", providing not only all necessary basic information, placing mechanism tools for reporting abuse in the hands of migrants and refugees, that are necessary in their journey's through the country, or their long term stays in Serbia. With tireless legal assistance and interpretation of regulations, we managed to provide health care (primary, secondary and tertiary protection) to asylum seekers who should receive care equal to the rights of Serbian citizens. In cooperation with local communities in Bogovadja and Lajkovac, the APC/CZA team, as early as 2012 began enrolling the children of asylum seekers into the Serbian educational system, in both elementary and secondary education institutions. We currently continue with this practice and as a result of our engagement with children who attend elementary school in Belgrade, Krnjaca, Sjenica and Tutin, they are able to receive full-time education, have become excellent and thoroughly satisfied students. We are the first in Serbia to have begun the integration process of refugees and asylum seekers in the country- by assisting them to find work, accommodation, the obtaining of documents, ease in overcoming psychological problems and adaptation problems that may have resulted due to their new environment surroundings, regulations, mentality and the culture in Serbia. We have managed to validate and recognize the first pages of diplomas for those who received asylum in Serbia. We provided the first work permits for more than 40 asylum seekers and those who received asylum and established a legal practice enabling and ensuring them with the right to work. Furthermore, APC/CZA also led disputes before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in order to protect people from illegal deportations from Hungary and Serbia and managed to ensure fair and equitable proceedings before the competent institutions. Over the past ten years, we have legally informed more than 220,000 migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, about their rights and obligations in the country in which they are located. We lawfully advised more than 23,600 asylum seekers and represented them in asylum and other proceedings, as well as before Misdemeanor, Administrative, Constitutional Courts and other instances. Our psychologists advised and empowered more than 7,000 asylum-seekers and refugees who needed help - through social assistance, and workshops, we advised more than 3900 asylum seekers. We have held over 937 different workshops (cultural, creative, empowering, health, language, school preparatory, and integration, psychological) with more than 4000 asylum seekers taking part in our activities. We have crossed over 400,000 kilometers with our mobile teams across Serbia. Our web pages were visited by more than 180,000 different people this year alone. During the 2015 refugee crisis, the Center had legally advised more than 110 000 refugees, more than 31 000 children and more than 30 000 women. APC / CZA has trained and taught practices of how to work with children and vulnerable groups, to more than 100 interns and young professionals from the country and abroad. APC / CZA has the first and only accredited training programs for social workers in the social welfare system as well as an accredited training program for professional staff in the education system in the field of migrant / asylum / refugee work with a special emphasis on minors. We have built a volunteer network with over 170 volunteers. Today in Serbia there is no other organization working with refugees where one of its employees has not undergone training, professional development or had a job at with Asylum Protection Center. We are particularly proud of our work related to informing the local community about refugees and migrants - people who have fled from war, persecution, poverty, who have come from various cultures, while at the same time informing the migrants about Serbian culture, customs and the rules of their new environment surroundings. With all of what we have done and of course what has been done by the state and its institutions, who have a primary duty to manage and care about migration, enough has yet to be done to confidently say that the situation with refugees in Serbia is at a good place. Currently there are far more than 5000 migrants in Serbia, of which up to 4000 are housed in reception centers, while others are in the open, in forests, in suburbs, abandoned buildings or in alternative accommodation. The Balkan route is formally closed, but dozens of people continue to enter the country from Bulgaria and Macedonia every day, while in Vojvodina the largest number has accumulated near the borders of Croatia, Hungary and Romania. Illegal deportation of people from Croatia, Hungary and Romania to Serbia is a continuous and illegal practice, and people have been illegally pushed back to Serbia, even in instances when they had not previously travelled through the country. This brings Serbia into the position of becoming a buffer zone for migration and as a new hotspot on the migration route, which ultimately leads to extensive and far-reaching consequences for the future. The longer retention of these people in Serbia and their increasingly difficult transition into EU countries, if that is their goal, requires a change in approaching this problem. Migrants currently have difficulty accessing accommodation and asylum procedures, and registration. They are violated of their fundamental rights as asylum seekers in fair and fast procedures, free legal aid, freedom of movement. This places a vulnerable group of people who are often exposed to abuse and violence more and more, in situations of prejudice and prevents integration and interaction with the local environment, and community while promoting the use of smuggling and crime. These circumstances require a greater engagement by our organization in informing migrants and providing legal protection to asylum seekers and refugees in proceedings before all institutions, bodies and courts of the Republic, as well as monitoring the application of regulations and behavior on the ground through the process' of border monitoring and abuse. It is very important that our organization keeps its independence, professional and objective approach to problems, while continuing to cooperate with the media to objectively inform citizens and the public while continuing our fight against prejudice and disinformation. APC / CZA will continue to train and provide professional practices for young professionals with its accredited training programs for civil servants while working intensively with local communities. APC / CZA will furthermore continue its engagement in the integration of those who have received asylum in Serbia, as well as in supporting the system itself and pushing for the improvement of existing practices, and cooperation in the region. As well, our team will work with secular organizations at the European level who will also be a priority in the fight against prejudices, and in raising public awareness of these problems, in building solidarity and permanent networks of cross-border cooperation between organizations in Europe.