Advocacy

A key aspect of contributing to an enabling environment for democratic resilience and active civic engagement is to raise awareness of community concerns and facilitate and support citizen and civil society’s advocacy actions to generate change. In order to mobilize and empower citizens and civil society actors to take part in decision-making and fight for necessary change, our program aims to raise awareness on key topics, facilitate access to information, and facilitate gatherings and dialogues of community members.  

Since its establishment, ATRC has completed 13 advocacy projects in total: 

Children’s rights 

ATRC has implemented the project PROtectCHILD to increase awareness and monitor implementation of on the Law on Child Protection. During this project ATRC also worked to improve local compliance with the law. 

Civic Engagement 

Through its Active Citizens and Equality for Equity projects ATRC strengthened citizen’s and civil society’s role in decision-making processes.  

Environment 

ATRC had several environmental projects including on Environmental Protection and Waste Management which improved the collection and management of waste through support and technical assistance to local authorities and other interested parties and ENV.net which aimed to give citizens a voice and influence public sector reform processes in the environment sector through analysis, monitoring and advocacy and in welcoming the standards of the environment acquis. ATRC also contributed to the South East Europe Sustainable Energy Policy (SEE SEP) which created an Energy Model of 2050 to help governments in drafting long-term development strategies. 

Justice 

The first project Justice for Justice encouraged civil society and citizens to advocate for positive reforms in certain fields of justice sector in Kosovo and promote public accountability by helping citizens to seek justice when their rights are violated by government officials and institutions. Justice and the People Campaign promoted education on the justice system and advocated directly for reforms at the national level. Our current project Justice Activity initiates dialogue between the Justice Service providers with the community to strengthen trust, improve the delivery of quality justice service, and increase access by information about justice services. 

Labour Rights 

The project Protecting and promoting labor rights of vulnerable groups in the labor market  improved the working conditions for vulnerable categories of employees, notably within the private sector, including workplace health and safety for women and men, through the promotion of social dialogue between workers and duty bearers. 

Property Rights 

ATRC’s current project on property rights aim to improve access to land and property registration information and counselling services for women, youth, and vulnerable persons in Kosovo, and empowering these groups within society.  

Business 

ATRC contributed to economic development and social inclusion in the cross-border areas of the East region in Kosovo, as well as Northeast and Skopje regions in Macedonia through income generation of start-ups and micro-enterprises in the project accessing export markets for handicraft products. ATRC also provided support to agribusiness of the Gjilan/Gnjilane Region.