The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, Mr Maina Kiai is calling for input on best practices to promote and protect freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association. The contributions will be incorporated into his report to the UN Human Rights Council. The deadline to submit is 20 January 2012. See details for more information.

The Unit for Cooperation with NGOs in the General Secretariat of the Government of Macedonia, is organizing online consultations as well as meetings with civil society organizations to solicit their opinion on the draft Strategy of the Government for Cooperation with Civil Sector (2012-2017). ECNL is key expert in the team that prepared the draft Strategy and conducts the consultation.

The Civic Initiatives (CI) and ECNL submitted amendments to a draft Law on Accounting, which was prepared by the Ministry of Finance. The amendments sought to better accommodate the accounting rules to NGOs, which the draft, puts on equal footing with business entities in this respect.

From November 29 – December 1, 2011, thousands of representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs), governments, and the private sector gathered at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan, South Korea. Delegates adopted the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation declaration, which establishes a framework for development cooperation that includes traditional donors, South-South partners, the BRIC countries, CSOs, and private donors.

The Macedonian Government Unit for Cooperation with NGOs published the Concept for the Strategy of the Government for Cooperation with the Civil Sector (2012-2017) and it is now open for consultation. ECNL is part of the team which is developing this document.

New CSO Law was passed by the Hungarian Parliament on the 5th of December. With the adoption of the new NGO Law the Law on National Civil Fund Program, the Law on public benefit organizations and the Law on associations are repealed.

The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, together with FHI 360 and Moldova Dialogue Project organized a Strategy planning meeting for the PBO Certification Commission in Moldova on December 9. The event was supported by USAID and Council of Europe and European Union.