South Programme III
The South Programme III, entitled “Ensuring Sustainable Democratic Governance and Human Rights in the Southern Mediterranean”, was implemented by the Council of Europe between March 2018 and February 2020. It covered the same beneficiaries as the South Programme IV (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine* and Tunisia) and had the same budget of € 3 334 000 co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.
Building on the two previous phases, this third phase of the programme aimed at ensuring the sustainability of earlier results by continuing to contribute to reinforcing human rights, the rule of law and democracy in the Southern Mediterranean region based on European and other international standards and following a flexible and demand-driven approach.
More specifically, the South Programme III sought to:
- Pursue the creation of a common legal space between Europe and the Southern Mediterranean region through the promotion of key Council of Europe conventions, partial agreements and other European and international standards;
- Provide continued institutional support to democratic governance and independent instances, legal expertise, networking and capacity building;
- Promote the expansion of existing relevant networks between Europe and the Southern Mediterranean and support the creation of new inter and intraregional networks;
- Contribute to combating of violence against women using relevant Council of Europe standards, tools and mechanisms, as a transversal priority.
* This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of Council of Europe and European Union member States on this issue.
New signatures and accessions to Council of Europe Conventions
The main achievements include among others:
Morocco
- Ratification of the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) and its Additional Protocol on Xenophobia and Racism (2018)
- Ratification of the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108) and its Additional Protocol regarding supervisory authorities and transborder data flows (2019)
Tunisia
- Ratification of the Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention) (2019)
- Signature of the Modernised Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108+) (2019)
- Invitation by the Committee of Ministers to become a contracting party to the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) (2020)
Enhanced compliance of legal frameworks with European standards through support to the drafting of new legislation
The main achievements include among others:
- Legislative assistance provided by Venice Commission to the Libyan electoral legislative reform process (2018)
- Adoption of an opinion on the Tunisian draft organic Law on the organisation of political parties and their funding (2018) by the Venice Commission
Others opinions by the Venice Commission for Egypt, Morocco, Palestine* and Tunisia - Legal expertise provided by a Council of Europe expert on the data protection law reform in Tunisia (2018)
Strengthened rule of law and promoting the respect of human rights through support to key institutional and policy reforms in these fields
The main achievements include among others:
- Support provided by the CEPEJ to the Egyptian Council of State to conduct satisfaction surveys aimed at court users (2020)
- Enhanced capacities of legal professionals in Morocco and Tunisia to tackle violence against women and trafficking in human beings in their daily practices (HELP courses and targeted training cycles of prosecutors in Morocco)
- Launch of corruption risk assessments of the Moroccan banking sector and of the judiciary in Palestine*
- Reinforcement of the effectiveness of the Tunisian National Authority for the Prevention of Torture (INPT) and the Jordanian Anti-Corruption Authority (JIACC) in exercising their mandates
Strengthened regional co-operation to discuss issues of common interest
The main achievements include among others:
- 4 meetings of the UniDem Med Campus for senior officials of the region hosted by Jordan/Palestine*, Tunisia and Morocco
- Jordan, Morocco, Palestine* and Tunisia acceded to the Šibenik Network of Corruption Prevention Agencies (2019/2020)
- Publication of the MedSPAD 2019 regional report on the prevalence of substance use among young populations of the Mediterranean rim
Combating violence against women in the region, through support to the revision and effective implementation of legal frameworks, with the Istanbul Convention as a key reference instrument
The main achievements include among others:
- Increased inter-sectorial co-ordination in Tunisia to protect victims of violence
- Enhanced capacities of 115 Moroccan prosecutors on combating violence against women (2019)
- Creation of a pool of Moroccan and Tunisian certified tutors to implement the contextualised and translated HELP course on violence against women at the national level and among relevant stakeholders
- 2019 MedSPAD regional report
- Report on the Intercultural Integration Academy
- Report on the 2018 Lisbon Forum on youth, peace and security
- Report on the follow-up seminar of the Lisbon Forum 2018
- Report on the seed-funding scheme for youth initiatives in the Southern Mediterranean
- Report on the 2019 Lisbon Forum on achieving together the sustainable development goals
- Report on the 7th UniDem Med seminar on improving the relation between administration and citizens (FR)
- Report on the 8th UniDem Med seminar on innovation and transformation in senior civil service (FR)
- Report on the 9th UniDem Med seminar on a public service closer to citizens (FR)
- Report on the 10th UniDem Med seminar on leading innovation in the civil service