Funded by the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, the Support to Rights Programme (Haklara Destek) was established in partnership between Truth Justice Memory Center (Hafıza Merkezi) and Heinrich Böll Stiftung (hbs). The programme aims to contribute to the development of human rights and participatory democracy in Turkey by supporting rights-based organisations and grassroots groups.
To this end, the programme is structured around two mechanisms to be implemented simultaneously over a two-year period:
In this way, the programme aims to enable rights-based organisations to focus on their core mission and objectives through institutional grant support, while simultaneously supporting their institutional development and impact through a parallel capacity development programme.
As part of the programme’s capacity development objective, all supported organisations are expected to take part in a collective process aimed at building a shared perspective on peace and democracy. This process will be carried out within thematic groups aligned with each organisation’s own area of work, together with other supported organisations. Organisations applying to the programme are advised to take this expectation into consideration.
The Support to Rights Programme is designed for organisations established in Turkey. Priority is given to organisations founded and operating in the eastern and south-eastern provinces. Work on anti-discrimination and minority rights has been identified as the programme’s priority area of focus.
Having a rights-based approach to your work is one of the fundamental requirements for applying to Support to Rights. Read here about what the universality and indivisibility of human rights, and the prohibition of discrimination, mean in terms of application eligibility.
Support to Rights is committed to sharing the programme's operations with the public — from the application process to grant decisions, from documents to complaint mechanisms. Learn more here about the programme's approach to transparency and how and which information is made accessible.
