Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) Resilience Fellowship 2023

Resilience Fellowship’s fourth iteration, which will focus on human rights in 2023, has been officially announced by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). In order to combat the effects of organized crime, the Fellowship creates a forum for cross-sectoral, international, and multidisciplinary collaboration amongst civil society actors, human rights advocates, journalists, artists, scholars, policymakers, grassroots community leaders, and others. (Resilience Fellowship 2023)

Deadline: November 15, 2022.

Resilience Fellowship

The Fellowship is a component of the GI-flagship TOC’s Resilience Fund, which offers funding and support to members of civil society and organizations fighting against the effects of violent crime and corrupt governments around the globe. The Resilience Fund started with funding from the government of Norway and supported by the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. It collaborates with international organizations and NGOs around the world.

A cohort of 10 people from all over the world received support and networking opportunities as part of the Fellowship’s inaugural iteration in 2020 on the topic of organized crime-related disappearances. The theme for 2021 was extortion. The Fellows in this cohort battled various forms of extortion used in wildly varied situations and cultures, identifying the many dynamics and manifestations of this illegal tactic. Environmental crime is the subject of the current Fellowship in 2022, with particular attention paid to illicit logging, IUUF, and environmental impacts on indigenous protected areas.

Human Rights and Organized Crime is the theme for 2023

The Resilience Fellowship’s 2023 subject will base on organized crime and human rights. Fellows will work together on a variety of outputs centered around this theme while drawing from their varied views. Fellows will fight for improved solutions to these abuses and increase awareness about how organized crime affects human rights violations as Resilience Fund Ambassadors.

Because of the existence of organized crime and criminal rule, human rights threatened throughout the world. Organized crime is posing a growing threat to public safety and security and escalating the commission of human rights violations in addition to those committed by state actors because of the violence and intimidation it fosters.

Organized criminal groups frequently use violence and intimidation to further their interests, either on their own or in cooperation with dishonest state actors, infringing upon a number of fundamental rights, including the right to life, liberty, security of person, property, freedom of movement, and freedom of speech. In this situation, despite having few available tools and resources, civil society groups and individuals frequently change or alter their missions, programs, and goals in response to challenges from organized crime.

Here are a few topics and projects as examples that might help you with your application. The following list is not all-inclusive and covers a variety of specific subjects and situations that relate to organized crime and human rights. However, a strong application must explain how these two issues are directly related.

Organize crime and human rights:

• Rights of youth and children in relation to forced labor, contemporary slavery, or human trafficking.
• Rights of youth and children as threatened by criminal behavior, including gang recruitment or their participation in illegal operations like extortion, microtrafficking, or murder for hire.
• Human trafficking, forced labor in the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural industries, as well as sexual exploitation are all examples of ways that criminal governance and exploitation undermine the rights of women.
• Criminal markets, such as land grabbing, illegal logging, illegal mining, or illegal crop cultivation in protected areas, imperil indigenous rights.
• gender equality, including criminal actors’ persistent harassment of or attacks on LGTBQIA+ groups.
• The control of routes or mobility by criminal organizations jeopardizes the rights of migrants.
• protection of the right to free speech, particularly in relation to independent media outlets and journalists, against intimidation or assault by bad actors.
• Protection of digital rights, notably when organized crime groups employ digital threats to prey on vulnerable communities or when authorities use anti-cybercrime legislation to stifle dissent, free speech, or information exchange.

Three pillars form the foundation of the Resilience Fellowship:

• Sponsorship: Offering financial assistance to Fellows in order to give them the time and resources to complete both their individual work and a group project. Grants of $15,000 USD each given out to fellows for a full year.
• Networking: Providing Fellows with the chance to work together on a joint project completed during their Fellowship year, as well as providing mentorship opportunities with GI-TOC subject matter experts.
• Dissemination: Giving Fellows the chance to publicly present their ideas and work through venues like conferences, forums for civil society, and national and international platforms, which will deepen engagement with society, broaden public discourse, and enlist the support and participation of the general public and, ultimately, policymakers.

Eligibility: A total of 10 Fellows to receive consideration for the 2023 academic year.

• The following professions required of applicants: journalism and media; activism; advocacy and community mobilization; the creative arts (writers, artists, filmmakers, and others); community leaders (religious, cultural, youth leaders); academia (researchers, consultants, and scholars); human rights practitioners working directly with affected communities; and the public sector (policymakers). If an applicant’s work is pertinent to the goals and annual subject of the Fellowship, people from other disciplines may be taken into consideration.
• People who labor in areas where organized crime is a problem, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, religion, or any other identifying characteristic, encouraged to apply. The 10 Fellows’ general makeup will be varied and fairly balanced in terms of gender and geography.

Selection standards:

• Participants ought to be from least developed nations or nations that are disproportionately affected by organized crime.
• Participants should ideally have significant ties to or work closely among communities severely affected by organized crime, as well as current or established projects or engagements. The fact that organized crime issues are international in scope makes it possible to provide special consideration to candidates from a larger, non-geographic community.
• Participants should be aware of the human rights violations and threats posed by the prevalence of organized crime and criminal government, or fight to protect such rights.
• Participants should explain how the money and assistance will be put to use.
• Participants with first-hand knowledge of issues affecting their communities that relate to the yearly subject especially invited to apply.
• Spanish, English, or French proficiency in at least one of these three languages required of participants.
• The preceding work of participants should show a dedication to the morals and values of the Resilience Fund.
• Each fellow will receive US$15,000 (split into three installments of US$5,000), which they can use anyway they see fit, subject only to the fellowship agreement’s terms and conditions, the proposal submitted with their application, and the professionalism, honesty, and transparency standards.

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How To Apply (ONLINE FORM) for the Resilience Fellowship

Interested parties must fill out the online application form on the Resilience Fund website . In response to a series of questions on this form, the candidate should describe their background, their work to address organized crime and human rights in local communities, and the project they would like to pursue as part of the Fellowship.

Please make sure that your responses are precise, brief, and don’t go above the established word limit.

You won’t be able to include any supporting documentation with your application. Please double-check that you filled out the online form completely and accurately. After it has been submitted, it cannot be changed.

Email submissions not accepted for applications. Each one needs to be submitted using the web form.

For any Additional Information about the Resilience Fellowship CLICK HERE

Please email fellowship@globalinitiative.net with any queries you may have or if you experience any technical problems when uploading your application.