The Ilko Kucheriv Democracy Fellowship Programme will assist the advancement of democratic practices in transitional democracies by empowering professionals of independent democracy and human rights advocacy NGOs and think-tanks from the CIS region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan). Fellows from the CIS region will gain expertise from well-established independent think tanks in the EU with experience of democratic transformation and protection of human rights.
The programme will provide mentoring and networking opportunities for five fellows from the CIS countries with the aim to gain practical skills, interact with other researchers, and exchange practices with well-established think-tanks and NGOs in the EU. The fellowships should focus on specific democratic transformation issues (e.g. media freedom, constitutional law, parliamentary democracy, judiciary, public opinion research, electoral processes, free and fair elections, building democratic awareness among the general public, etc.)
Applications are invited from researchers/policy analysts/professional staff, who are full-time employees of independent think-tanks, policy institutes, and democracy and human rights advocacy NGOs in CIS countries. Applicants should be citizens of one of the 12 eligible countries mentioned above.
Deadline for applications is Midnight, Central European Time (CET), Friday 2 September 2011.
For more information, please see the CALL FOR FELLOWS [PDF].
Project partners are PASOS(Prague), Institute of Public Affairs(Warsaw) and Democratic Initiatives Foundation(Kiev).
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Ilko Kucheriv (1955-2010) was a prominent activist in the Ukrainian civil movement. He fought for the independence of Ukraine and put all his efforts into ensuring that Ukraine would become a democratic European country. He was the founder of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF) and personally contributed a great deal to the advancement of democratic ideas in Ukraine. Ilko Kucheriv passed away in 2010, leaving behind him far-reaching plans for the activities of his foundation and for democratic development stretching 20 years into the future. "I believe that people can and should strive to change the world for the better."
