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124 projects from Russia's 47 regions win contest for state grants for NCOs

The contest involved 713 projects from over 100 cities and rural settlements of Russia

MOSCOW, December 05. /ITAR-TASS/. One hundred and twenty-four projects from 47 regions of the Russian Federation are the winners of a contest for receiving state grants for non-commercial organizations (NCOs) engaging in human rights activities. Lists of the winners are published on Thursday on the website of the Civic Dignity organization (directed by Ella Pamfilova) which carried out the competition.

The contest involved 713 projects from over 100 cities and rural settlements of Russia, the website report says. "At the preliminary stage, following an expert examination, 246 applications were turned down because the listed projects obviously did not correspond to the themes of the competition or to its formal requirements," the Civic Dignity organization reports, explaining that among those turned-down applications "there were a lot of projects dealing with other aspects and which can well be filed in line with themes suggested by grant operators in a future contest".

Three point two billion rubles were assigned in 2013 for the implementation of socially significant projects of the NCOs.

On September 4, President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting of the Council on the Development of Civil Society and on Human Rights, announced the allocation of additional 200 million rubles in 2013 in grants to human rights activists. He said that, beginning from 2014, the State would allocate 500 million roubles every year in support of the rights NCOs, with grants to be distributed by the Ella Pamfilova-directed movement.

The Head of State said the granted resources must be distributed independently, "by NCOs themselves with the invitation of authoritative rights activists and respected civil society experts".

The contest commission, formed by the Civic Dignity, included, in particular, Mikhail Fedotov, Chairman of the Council on Human Rights (CHR), Vladimir Lukin, Russian ombudsman, CHR members — Yelizaveta Glinka (Dr Liza), Yelena Topoleva-Soldunova and Sergei Karaganov — Yelena Lukyanova, member of the Russian Public Chamber, journalists Zoya Svetova and Irina Yasina, Galina Khovanskaya, State Duma member, and others -- 17 persons all in all. Full list of members is published on the website of the Civic Dignity Movement.

November 1 was the final date for acceptance of applications for the contest.

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