Tag: COVID-19

This year’s meeting, on June 10-11th, was hosted virtually by the government of Serbia, with support from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Belgium. It was simultaneously interpreted into French and Serbian.

Osservatorio Diritti, an Italian media outlet dedicated to human rights and human rights defenders worldwide, has published an analysis of Kazakhstan’s mismanagement of the pandemic from the perspective of civil society.  The article features interviews with Paola Gaffurini, Advocacy Officer at the Open Dialogue Foundation, Dana Zhanay, Kazakhstani human rights defender and co-founder of Qaharman […]

The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) and Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani (FIDU) are back on track after the lockdown with a real-life press conference “The Authoritarian Epidemic: Safeguarding Human Rights in Times of COVID-19”. The conference was held on 29 July 2020, at Sala Caduti di Nassirya of the Italian Senate, in Rome, Italy.

The action “Meal for a Doctor” (#MealForADoctor) was organised on the initiative of Patryk Wachowiec, legal analyst of the FOR (Civil Development Forum) Foundation and Marcin Mycielski, Member of the Board of Directors of the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) on 15 March 2020, in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic that put, among others, the Polish health service in an unprecedented situation. The so-called lockdown introduced in Poland on the night of 13/14 March 2020 forced the immediate closure of restaurants, which from then on could only operate by delivering ordered meals. In these circumstances, the idea of supporting doctors, nurses, paramedics and all other healthcare professionals by providing them with free meals at the workplace was born. A secondary, yet important intention of the originators was the desire to help the small catering industry survive the crisis.

Today, Rafał Matouszek, Logistics Coordinator at the Open Dialogue Foundation, visited Silesia – his home region. During the special mission, Rafał met with the management of City Hospital No. 4 in Gliwice in order to sign a donation agreement for the amount of over 58,000 zlotys that remained after settlements with restaurants as part of the #PosiłekDlaLekarza (eng. MealForADoctor) campaign. The campaign was carried out together with the FOR (Civil Development Forum) Foundation and the Niskie Składki (Low Contributions) and Spontaniczny Sztab Obywatelski (Spontaneous Civic Staff) associations.

Upon the initiative of the Italian Senator Roberto Rampi
the Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU) and the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF)
invite you to the press conference “The Authoritarian Epidemic: Safeguarding Human Rights in Times of COVID-19”.

The coronavirus infection COVID-19 has become a challenge not only for healthcare systems, economics, social policy and public administration in most countries of the world, but also to human rights. Human rights have been especially threatened in authoritarian states, including Kazakhstan.

ODF joined the appeal of other 23 leading international NGOs to U.S. Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, and Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Terner Mnuchin, addressing human rights and corruption concerns in times of COVID-19 in authoritarian governments.

The coronavirus outbreak was labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. As of 22 June 2020, the WHO had reported cases of COVID-19 in more than 216 countries and more than 8,844,171 people infected worldwide.

The coronavirus outbreak has been labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. As of 22 June 2020, the WHO had reported cases of COVID-19 in more than 216 countries and more than 8,844,171 people infected worldwide. The scale and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic clearly rises to the level […]

On May 25-26th, our Maksym Sytnikov and Katarzyna Szczypska, addressed the issues of ethnic tensions and ethnic discrimination in Kazakhstan and state-sponsored hatred by the public media in Poland at the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SHDM).

In times of crisis, people often understandably turn to governments for help. And yet while there is an important and crucial role for governments to play during a pandemic, we shouldn’t forget the vital part played by the free market. If both the government and the market are allowed to perform the right functions, together they can help get us out of this extraordinary time.

As the government of Kazakhstan prepares to receive US$800,000 of additional assistance from the U.S. to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, President Tokayev continues to repress fundamental freedoms unabated.

As the COVID-19 outbreak started to spread in the Republic of Moldova, the Parliament declared the state of emergency on March 17, 2020. Yet, the provided rules, sanctions and restrictions are often unclear and limited.

The two biggest campaigns providing meals free-of-charge to health service workers fighting the coronavirus epidemic – our #MealForDoctor and #SustenanceCalling initiatives – are joining forces!