About the Human Rights Fund 2023

The Human Rights Fund (HRF) is a tool of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands to support activities of civil society around the world with the goal of achieving tangible results in improving human rights.

The HRF is meant to support activities in line with the five priorities of the Dutch human rights policy:

  • Supporting human rights defenders;
  • Freedom of expression, internet freedom and independent journalism;
  • Equal rights for LGBTIQ+’s;
  • Equal rights for women and girls;
  • Freedom of religion and belief.

Funding criteria

Project proposals must meet the following criteria in order to be considered:

  • The applying organisation must be based in Hungary.
  • A maximum of one proposal per applying organisation will be taken into consideration.
  • If your organisation has been financially supported by the Embassy in previous years, projects should be finished in a satisfactory manner before the starting date of a new project.
  • Focus of the project should be on at least one of the priority areas of the Dutch human rights policy mentioned above.
  • The project must start in 2023. The proposed projects should finish within three years after the starting date.
  • The requested contribution should fall within the range of 5,000-25,000 euro per project.
  • Proposals must be submitted via the standard application form attached to this call.
  • The proposal should include clear and feasible goals and concrete and durable results.
  • Project proposals must be concise and focus on the intended activities and expected results.
  • Forms exceeding 4 pages in total (incl. attachments) will not be taken into consideration.
  • Please do not send any attachments, such as letters of recommendation or other background documents supporting your application, as they will not be taken into account.

Application procedure 

  • The deadline for submitting projects is 10 February 2023.
  • Project proposals must be submitted to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Budapest, via e-mail to bdp-hrf@minbuza.nl. Only proposals sent to this email address will be taken into consideration.
  • Subject of the e-mail should be “Application Human Rights Fund 2023”.

Assessment and Approval Procedure

Due to the limited amount of funding available, meeting all formal criteria does not automatically mean selection of the proposal. Project proposals received will be subjected to a competitive selection procedure. In assessing the proposals the Embassy will inter alia take the following factors into account:

  • Relevance of the project to the human rights objectives of the Netherlands and to the Hungarian context.
  • The expected impact of the project;
  • Balance between the scope of the project activities and the budget proposed;
  • Past performance;
  • Joint applications with other Hungarian organisations are welcomed.

The Embassy will inform applicants on the outcome of the selection procedure no later than 17 March 2023. A personal (or telephone) meeting could be part of the selection procedure. After the final decision, organisations whose proposals have been approved will receive a grant decision. At that time they will be also informed about the reporting requirements.

Questions?

Should you have any questions, please contact the Embassy through bdp-hrf@minbuza.nl.

The application form can be downloaded following this link.