Assisting Evidence-based Communication and Campaigning Strategies to enable Safe Civic Space in Europe

ongoing

To defend and grow civic space, ACCESS is an enabling project leading to increased awareness about specific issues within the fundamental rights catalogue and further strengthen the relations among the partners and their cooperation with local CSOs. Using social media listening, ACCESS will develop messaging guides and training on the topic of civic space, and country-specific topics: migration (Croatia), active citizenship (Hungary), racism/anti-racism (Sweden), and right to citizenship for people with migration background (Italy). With three specific objectives, ACCESS aims to (1) increase skills and knowledge of the partners to replicate framing workshops to selected local CSOs (WP2); (2) provide communication guidance on context-specific topics to selected local NGOs (WP3); and (3) create an EU-wide online platform, the Civic Space Action Hub (CSAH), for rights defenders to facilitate collaboration, enable knowledge and best practice exchange, organise and advocate more effectively, take action against shrinking civic space, share funding opportunities, organise online events with experts and provide legal expertise and litigation support (WP4). Our messaging guides will contribute to increased dialogue about and within the civic space, and the positive narratives on the topics will constitute a stronghold against rising populist and authoritarian trends. Information about attacks and targeted response will be collected on the CSAH platform, which in turn serves as a channel of reporting and data collection for the European Commission. Primary beneficiaries are our partner CSOs which will receive the messaging guide and be trained to train other CSOs; and the local CSOs receiving the guides and training from our country partners. Secondary beneficiaries are other CSOs promoting fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law in each country. The CSAH platform opens the group of beneficiaries to all interested fundamental rights defenders of the Union.