Armenia: Call for Proposals to Monitor the Effect of COVID-19 in Closed Institutions: LOT 2

Penitentiary Institutions in the Republic of Armenia

The Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) has launched a regional “COVID-19 Solidarity Programme 2020-2022: Call for Proposals on COVID-19 in Prisons and Mental Health Institutions” with the financial support of the European Union, and in partnership with People in Need and AFEW International.

The NHC, in cooperation with Human Rights in Mental Health (Federation Global Initiative in Psychiatry, FGIP), will deliver the activities of the Programme. This programme will support civil society organisations (CSOs) to respond to the immediate and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Eastern Partnership countries.

Objectives of the Call

NHC and FGIP seek to provide grants to CSOs to monitor the effect of COVID-19 prevention and treatment measures on the conditions of people confined to penitentiary institutions, detention and/or pre-detention centres in the Republic of Armenia. This includes the full range of relevant issues including (discontinuation of) health care, (lack of) contact with lawyers, relatives or loved ones, inclusiveness in COVID-19 vaccination programme in the country, and other related basic human rights. In addition to monitoring and reporting, the objective would also be to provide advice and assistance to stakeholders, including confined persons, personnel, relatives, lawyers, on problems they encounter in COVID-19 prevention and treatment.

Organisations (or consortia) that already have access to penitentiary institutions under a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) of the Republic of Armenia or that through another agreement with authorities have access to these institutions are invited to submit a proposal. Applicants that do not have a formalized relationship with governmental bodies that provides access to penitentiary institutions need to prove they have a track record of obtaining reliable information based on monitoring and explain in detail how such information will be gathered.

The aim of the proposal should be to facilitate specific attention for COVID-19 related issues in closed institutions in addition to ongoing work relating to conditions in penitentiary institutions.

Selected organizations will be provided with documentation about international standards relevant to COVID-19 in closed institutions, and will have access for questions of methodology to advice from the pool of experts of NHC and FGIP on monitoring of and health care in penitentiary institutions.

Eligibility

This call for proposals is open to non-profit-making civil society organisations or consortia of non-profit-making civil society organizations with the status of a legal person, established in the Republic of Armenia. In case of consortia, the main applicant will be responsible for the overall implementation of the action.

All organizations should have a formalized relationship with respective governmental bodies that provides access to penitentiary institutions and the applicant needs to prove it has a record of working with these institutions.

Applications should provide evidence of the following:

• Registration status as a non-profit organisation registered under national legislation
• At least four years’ experience delivering activities in line with the proposed project
• Experience with managing budgets of similar size

Public administration institutions, state agencies, local or regional authorities, political parties or organisations affiliated with political parties are not eligible for this call.

CSOs that applied for the LOT1 within the scope of this project (to monitor the effect of COVID-19 prevention and treatment measures on the conditions of people confined to mental health institutions) are eligible to apply.

Application Process

Applicants must submit the following:

• Annex 1 – Application Form
• Annex 2 – Budget
• Registration certificate of the organization (original with an English)
• Statute of the organisation (if possible in English)
• Evidence of track record in similar projects
• CVs of the project team
• If the proposal is submitted by a consortium: an outline of the cooperation process and the division of tasks between individual members in the application form (annex 1).

Applications can be submitted in Armenian or English. All submitted applications must be signed by the head of the applicant organisation, scanned and sent electronically.

The application package should be submitted to: Covid19SP@nhc.nl

Deadline for submission of full applications is December 19, 2021. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.

More details about the call for proposals (English and Armenian)

Application Form, Budget and Annexes (English and Armenian)

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.