Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan Lawyers Association
$27,490
To defend the political rights of the citizens of Azerbaijan. The Association will focus on the most basic rights that are constitutionally mandated the right to assembly, association, free speech, and access to information. The Association will provide legal assistance to politically active citizens, produce two monitoring reports focusing on freedom of assembly and other political rights, and conduct four televised roundtables and six training seminars throughout the country.

Citizen Advocacy Office for Legislature's Accountability (CAOLA)
$18,100
To advocate greater transparency in the parliament and create a system of public oversight over MPs. The organization will train twelve constituent groups in methods of advocating for greater transparency and accountability from their parliamentary representative. CAOLA will also launch a campaign to persuade parliament to publish its voting records and publish a monthly bulletin.

FAR Centre for Economic and Political Research
$40,055
To involve Azeri graduates from U.S., European, and Turkish exchange programs in a debate about policy. The FAR Center will work with five groups of young Western-educated graduates, each of which will publish a policy paper on issues of particular importance to young people in the journal, III Era. A public opinion poll about political attitudes among young people will be held nationally.

Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan
$52,900
To publish monthly reports about violations of human rights in Azerbaijan. The Center will provide legal advice to ethnic minorities, refugees, homeless people, and prisoners and select cases for litigation in Azerbaijan and in international courts. The Center will also conduct trainings for activists and partner with the Chechen Educational Center to train young refugees.

Internews Azerbaijan
$49,957
To expand Internews' Azerbaijan Media Forum website. The website will translate materials by Azerbaijani exiles from Iran, publish relevant legislation, monitor of abuses against the media, and critique irresponsible journalism. The site will host online forums with parliamentarians, prominent journalists, and political party leaders. The site will also contain news and interactive discussions, and contribute to advocacy, monitoring of freedom of the press, and criticism of unethical journalism.

Janub Khabarlari
$35,265
To publish a newspaper three times a month, with a print run of 4,000 copies distributed throughout Southern Azerbaijan free of charge. Its main office will serve as a resource center and library for local NGOs, with literature on managing NGOs and democratic ideas and institutions. The newspaper's lawyer will provide consultations free of charge, particularly to NGOs facing legal troubles or pressure.

Law and Development Public Association
$33,572
To enable effective communication between parliamentarians and their constituents in five regions of Azerbaijan. The Association will hold training seminars to inform regional activists about the responsibilities of their parliamentarian and methods of interacting with his office. The Association will also organize forums for parliamentarians to meet their constituents, and will organize study tours for activists from each region to visit the parliament in Baku.

Legal Education Society
$37,700
To bring together a group of attorneys and a coalition of NGOs to monitor the judicial branch. The Society will lodge complaints against judges in instances of serious violations, and train the lawyers and activists. The Society will publish a report, a book, and an electronic bulletin. It will organize three roundtable discussions and a two-day conference.

"Legal Help" Public Association
$15,904
To build legal literacy and defend the labor rights of citizens by providing legal consultations and representation for workers, employers, and trade unions in Lenkoran, a provincial town in Azerbaijan. The organization will provide consultations in person and over a telephone hotline six days a week. The organization will conduct four seminars on labor rights and publish a book about Azerbaijan's labor code.

Media Rights Institute
$30,714
To conduct trainings about the provisions of the Freedom of Information Law for 330 activists throughout Azerbaijan. The activists will form a "Sunshine Network" of activists to support common efforts to obtain access to information. The Institute will publish a manual on the law and create a website with relevant articles, commentaries, and examples of best practices.

Model Constitutional Court (MCC)
$40,298
To continue its program of mock trials and mock public hearings which demonstrate how a free, independent judiciary works. The MCC will hold four mock trials and seven mock public hearings and publish articles in the Azerbaijani press after each event. MCC will also produce two short films and radio programs based on the events and publish a book containing event transcripts.

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
$217,999
To develop political parties at the local level, and develop targeted voter outreach. NDI will build the capacity of political activists to identify and gauge local issues, develop local platforms, and increase interaction between political party members and the electorate. These efforts will create a core group of effective local party officials, stimulate discussion and resolution of local and regional issues, and create models for use nationwide by political parties.

OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement
$14,940
To promote the formation a youth movement that truly represents the interests and priorities of young people. OL! will create nine clubs on such topics as international relations and economics, organize monthly roundtable discussions regarding issues of importance, and hold a leadership camp. OL! will also form a specialized library by collecting volumes that are not readily available in university libraries.

Social Union of Sumgait Youth (SUSY)
$46,828
To support the growth of the third sector. SUSY will continue to operate its NGO Resource Center in Sumgait, publish the Yukselish Namine newspaper, and maintain a website. In addition, it will launch a new monthly television program focusing on NGO activity. The show will be modeled on a similar program that SUSY produced two years ago for Dunya, a local TV station.

Society of Women of Azerbaijan for Peace and Democracy for the Transcaucasus
$72,718
To assist human rights defenders from Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. The Society will organize seminars for Uzbek human rights defenders regarding security. The Society will form a network of human rights defenders from Azerbaijan. The Society will partner with human rights organizations in Uzbekistan and the youth organization Yeni Fekir.

Yeni Nesil
$42,000
To publish the independent newspaper Gyun and make the newspaper commercially viable. Currently, Gyun is a 28-page weekly newspaper with a print run of 3,500. Yeni Nesil will publish another edition of Gyun each week and increase its subscription base. It will establish an independent distribution network to bypass government-run distribution networks that are unreliable and subject to pressure.

Young Leaders Education-Training and Development Union
$24,935
To educate Azerbaijan's young people and impart the values of activism, teamwork, and civic responsibility. The Union will organize two five-month intensive courses and two final seminars and will publish a monthly newsletter and a monthly NGO bulletin. The Union will also make efforts to integrate students into the local NGO community.

Young Leaders Education-Training and Development Union
$14,344
To launch a media center in the provincial town Ganja. The center will provide office services for local journalists and will conduct training seminars. The Union will organize a journalism contest and maintain a web page about civil society in Ganja. The Union will conduct an opinion poll to learn how citizens obtain news and information.