About ACTUA
Main Goal:
- Promote the protection of human rights in the country, in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic;
Specific Goals:
Strengthen civil society in the fields of human rights, good governance and transparency, given the impact of COVID-19;
Provide protection and legal assistance to human rights defenders and vulnerable groups (women, girls or LGTBI groups);
Empower vulnerable groups (women, girls or LGTBI groups) about their rights;
The financing from the European Commission is 350,000 Euros and its total duration is from July 2022 to June 2025 (36 months).
Co-applicants
ACTUA’s action is coordinated by Transparency International Portugal, with Bocamandja Theater Company and the Association for the Support of African Women (ASAMA) as co-applicants.
Activities
The planned activities can be essentially divided into 4 groups: training, facilitation, assistance and awareness:
- Social facilitators and training participants must be initially trained in the use of new technologies. A minimum of 15 monitors will be trained in total and will have the means of communication for the development of the activities, since they will have a specific assignment or area depending on their organization to which they belong and the area identified. The first tasks and areas to be prioritized will be:
1. Assessment of the impact and vulnerabilities generated by COVID-19, e.g. in other diseases;
2. Act as an early warning system for cases of discrimination for different reasons and that can channel the cases to the legal clinic. Care for gender violence will be included. - Lawyers and/or jurists will be trained in the protection of fundamental rights such as arbitrary arrests, included in the COVID-19 restrictions. The capacity to care for vulnerable groups such as the LGTBI community or women victims of gender violence will be maintained and expanded. 30 lawyers or jurists and civil servants will be trained. Of the jurists, 10 are expected to attend the legal clinic for cases of human rights violations in other cities of the country.
- The third type of training will be carried out after a self-assessment exercise of the organizations’ capacities, in order to facilitate institutional strengthening that will focus first on the co-applicants.
The Citizens Academy will also serve for CSOs to exchange information, collaborate and better prepare their strategies. The provision of spaces that allow social organizations regular access to media such as teleconferences, meeting rooms for seminars with media such as projectors, will allow the limitations caused by the pandemic to be overcomed, but will also increase efficiency thanks to networking and coordinated work. Facilitation is a vitally important element for local CSOs, particularly those that do not have their own work spaces, or for those that, while having them, are not suitable for longer work meetings and in coordination with organizations from other geographic regions. Hence the importance of the Citizens Academy both in Bata and in Malabo.
The legal clinic will expand its attention, in cases that arise, to the rest of the country, with the assistance of lawyers in the continental region. In addition, emergency aid mechanisms will be established that have been developed and used by the legal clinic for immediate assistance in case of imminent danger or serious precariousness. The figure of the social facilitator will also be useful in this activity by performing an explanatory and accompanying function of the possible options and support from organizations and other protection mechanisms. For example, they will guide to obtain means of health, psychological or educational care that will complement the legal action.
Thanks to the local implementation of the co-applicants, it is planned to carry out activities to raise awareness and promote human rights with minors and women within the framework of the activities of these organizations, which will benefit preferentially from the training of the Citizens Academy.
A second type of sensitization where the co-applicants will also be involved will be those aimed at institutions or authorities.