Azerbaijan

“Uluchay” Social-Economic Innovation Center
$36,095
To encourage the participation of young people in public life in Sheki. The Society will organize biweekly events includ­ing a speaker series and documentary film screenings. The Society will conduct training for 300 village teachers to help them to incorporate civics into the school curriculum. The organization will train a select group of young journalists to write articles for a blog and a newspaper.

“Young Leaders” Education, Training and Development Union
$44,399
To run the Ganja Media Center, which will maintain a news web site, www.ganca.az, host seminars for journalists, and produce TV shows. The site will inform the public of western Azerbaijan about current events through its webpage by utilizing a network of local correspondents, providing journal­ism training, and producing six television shows for a local television station.

Alliance of Women for Civil Society
$49,596
To conduct mock trials and mock public hearings and show other organizations in the South Caucasus how to orga­nize such events. The Alliance will hold events in Tbilisi, Baku, and the regions of Azerbaijan that will explore current political controversies. The Alliance will produce a video based on these events and will publish a book containing tran­scripts and documentation. The Alliance will work with Georgian colleagues, the South Caucasus Center for Civic Hear­ings, to organize two events in Tbilisi.

Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture
$47,390
To provide legal assistance to victims of torture, and conduct monitoring and ex­pose abuses in places of detention. The or­ganization will use four regional offices to provide legal assistance to victims, repre­sent them in court, and pursue legal rem­edies against perpetrators of torture. The organization will publish reports and hold press conferences based on its findings.

Azerbaijan Lawyers Association (ALA)
$37,439
To defend the rights of citizens of Azerbai­jan. The organization will conduct moni­toring of politically motivated trials and arrests as well as the process of consider­ing appeals and complaints during the par­liamentary elections. The ALA will conduct six training seminars in the regions of the country, focusing on the electoral law in anticipation of parliamentary elections of 2010. Finally, the organization will con­duct four roundtables to discuss political cases that are currently under appeal.

Center for Economic and Political Research “FAR Center”
$61,410
To develop the analytical skills and political and civic consciousness of Azerbaijani youth and help them to formulate their advocacy and policy agendas. The FAR Center will manage a youth resource cen­ter. The FAR Center will hold civic educa­tion seminars for groups of young people, including members of youth organizations, alumni of exchange programs, university students, and others. The FAR Center will also conduct a national opinion poll about political attitudes among the youth.

Center for Economic and Political Research “FAR Center”
$8,030 supplement
To conduct six seminars for the youth of Azerbaijan to motivate them to greater political and civic activity. Each seminar will last one day and host 30-50 partici­pants from youth NGOs, alumni groups, and university students. The majority of these seminars will focus on participa­tion in the November 2010 elections, information on the candidates, and electoral law. Other lectures will discuss democracy theory and human rights.

Center for National and International Studies
$69,116
To conduct eight conferences on the liberal tradition in Azerbaijan and Turkey. The program will seek to counter the impact of government propaganda by demonstrating that liberal reform has historical prec­edents in Azerbaijan and in Turkey, thereby bolstering public confidence in Azerbaijan’s democratic potential. The papers pre­sented at the conferences will be published as a book at the end of the program.

Democracy and NGO Development and Resource Center Social Union of Nakhchivan
$25,250
To encourage citizen participation in the electoral process and promote civic activ­ism in a particularly repressive region of Azerbaijan. The organization will conduct interviews with local citizens to learn their views about the election, and monitor candidate registration and other election related processes. The Social Union will also conduct a public opinion poll to learn about the attitude of the local voters about the elections.

Ganjabasar Newspaper
$40,320
To publish a weekly newspaper in the western region of Azerbaijan. The newspaper will report on current events and the social and political situation in the country, focusing in particular on threats to freedom of the press and other concerns for civil society. Since this is the only independent newspaper in Azerbaijan’s second largest city, the priority will be to focus on current events in Ganja city and the adjacent districts, especially on the parliamentary election.

Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS)
$57,082
To conduct monitoring and advocacy on issues of press freedom in Azerbaijan. IRFS will publish a daily press release and circulate appeals as needed. The organi­zation will conduct media and courtroom monitoring and hold biweekly meetings and seminars. IRFS will continue its indepen­dent investigations into unsolved attacks against journalists and will post materials from these investigations on its web page. Finally, the organization will train university students through its internship program.

Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS)
$40,308
To add a news broadcasting capability to its web site, called Objektiv (“Lense”). IRFS will produce daily short video clips which will be broadcast on its web page and on You Tube. The organization will build a new type of video delivery through broadband, which will permit viewers to watch IRFS video on their cell phones. This technology has the potential to increase the audience dramatically since almost all Azerbaijanis have mobile telephones.

Internews Azerbaijan Public Association
$24,900
To maintain its Azerbaijan Media Forum website, www.mediaforum.az. Internews will publish texts and drafts of relevant legislation, monitoring of abuses against the media, analytical articles, and original reporting. The site will host monthly online forums with prominent journalists and civil society leaders and organize biweekly public opinion polls. Internews will provide extensive coverage of events pertaining to Azerbaijanis in Iran and the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, and will con­duct advocacy on human rights topics.

Janub Khabarlari
$43,783
To publish and distribute its newspaper throughout southern Azerbaijan. Over the course of the next year the newspa­per expects to pay particular attention to exposing electoral fraud, uncovering corruption, and reporting on human rights abuses. Janub Khabarlari will publish its newspaper three times a month, with a print run of 5,000 copies, and will distrib­ute it throughout the south of Azerbaijan.

Law and Development Public Association
$27,585
To strengthen public participation in the October 2010 parliamentary elections. The Association will work with partner orga­nizations in five regions to inform activists about the electoral law and the procedures for filing complaints. It will provide legal assistance to voters, election monitors, and candidates. A final report will be presented at a roundtable at the end of the program.

Legal Education Society
$53,215
To conduct monitoring of Azerbaijan’s compliance with the rulings of the Eu­ropean Court of Human Rights and with the United Nations Conventions. LES will also provide legal representation for ap­peals to the Constitutional Court, teach a course in constitutional law at two law schools, and hold seminars on cases from the Constitutional Court in the regions of Azerbaijan for civil society leaders. LES will publish two books, produce a moni­toring report, and maintain a web site.

Media Rights Institute (MRI)
$36,890
To improve the observance of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law in Azerbaijan. MRI will generate three hundred information requests and monitor how government agencies respond; MRI will also monitor fifty government websites to determine the quantity and quality of requested information available. The organization will produce two monitoring reports, which will be discussed during public presentations. MRI will contribute articles for publica­tion in the press and maintain a website.