UN announces new funding for small human rights projects in over 20 countries

Seeking to support community human rights initiatives, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights today announced new small grants to help 21 countries in this effort.

By providing up to $5,000 to community organizations and individuals, the project supports activities that can have a significant local impact, UNDP reported, citing the example of Liberia Prison Watch, which used a grant to monitor the human rights in prisons and create awareness about the rights of prisoners and detainees among members of the criminal justice system.

"It is striking to see how much you can do with little money," said a UNDP programme officer in Jordan. "You fund enthusiastic people on the ground and they do wonders."

During the newly announced phase of the project, which began in 1998, grants will be awarded to Burkina Faso, Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, the United Republic of Tanzania, Cambodia, the Palestinian Territories, the Philippines, Samoa, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Haiti and Venezuela.