According to the most general and widely accepted definition, nongovernmental, i.e. non-profit organizations are formal voluntary organizations institutionally separated and independent from the Government which – if they do generate profit – they don’t distribute it among members of owners, but return it to the fundamental mission of the organization.

When we speak about policies towards such organizations, we speak of all Government actions (or lack thereof) directed to create proper environment for their work, primarily in terms of public (legal, institutional, etc.) framework for their work and activities. In spite of the fact that such policies in democratic states are always denoted by the declared goal to promote the development of civil society, in reality it can often be rather restricting for some or all organizations. Read More.

Freedom House`s Nations in Transit 2008 report, released earlier this week, noted a growing divergence in democratic performance among the 29 countries and administrative areas from Central Europe to Eurasia it analyzes for their progress, and lack thereof, in areas of electoral processes, civil society, independent media, national democratic governance, local democratic governance, judicial framework and independence and corruption.

The round-table discussion, organized under the auspices of the Civil Society Public Advocacy Initiative programme by the Civic Initiatives, in cooperation with ECNL Budapest and the Government Team for implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy, gathered about 60 participants. The debate, Institutional Models for Cooperation between the State and Civil Society was held at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.

The national Ministry of Finance and Treasury, in cooperation with the B&H Directorate of European Integrations (DEI), organized a meeting in Sarajevo, on May 15, 2008, with the representatives of the civil society organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. OWPSEE`s Sanjin Buzo comments on the proceedings at the meeting and the ignorant approach to civil society adopted by BiH Institutions and EC Delegation.

The informal group of citizens of Sarajevo that has protected, in cooperation with a number of NGOs, for over a month now against, as they say, incompetent municipal and cantonal authorities and deteriorating security situation in Sarajevo, announced its demands in public.