Call for Applications: UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture

The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture has launched the 2024 call for applications.

Donor Name: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Country: Global

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 03/01/2023

Size of the Grant: 100,000 USD

Details:

The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture was created in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Its mandate is to receive “voluntary contributions for distribution, through established channels of assistance, as humanitarian, legal and financial aid to individuals whose human rights have been severely violated as a result of torture and to relatives of such victims”. The Fund fulfils its mandate by awarding grants for civil society organizations worldwide to implement projects aimed at providing services to victims of torture and their relatives. The Fund receives voluntary contributions from States and private entities.

The Fund is managed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on behalf of the Secretary-General and operates in conformity with the United Nations Financial Rules and Regulations. The Fund’s Secretariat is comprised of staff members, fellows and interns of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Grants may only be awarded to organizations for projects that provide direct assistance to victims of torture and their family members. Such assistance may be in the form medical, psychological, social, economic, legal, humanitarian, educational or other forms of direct assistance. Examples of issues addressed by direct assistance projects include, inter alia, the following:

victims of torture and intersecting discrimination, such as persons with disabilities, LGBTI persons and minorities;
genderbased violence amounting to torture; denial of medical treatment or care, including in places of deprivation of liberty;
excessive use of force amounting to torture, notably in the context of protests and social movements;
attacks amounting to acts of torture against human rights defenders working under restrictive or retaliatory measures.

Funding Information

The amount requested to the Fund for annual grants must not exceed two thirds of the total budget of the project. Exceptions to this rule will be considered, provided that the Fund’s Board deems the justification satisfactory.
The Fund awards three types of grants to civil society organizations:
- Direct assistance (annual) grants: Direct assistance and capacity building annual grants are awarded for a one-year period of the following year for amounts ranging from 30,000 USD to 100,000 USD. Only “on-going applicant” organizations submitting a continuation of a funded project proposal in the same country of implementation may be awarded a grant of more than US$50,000. Direct assistance grants for “first-time” or “returning” categories of applicant organizations cannot exceed US$50,000.
- Capacity building (annual) grants: Capacity building grants cannot exceed US$50,000 for all categories of applicant organizations.
- Emergency grants: Emergency grants cannot exceed US$100,000.
Duration:
- Direct assistance and capacity building grants (annual grants) cover project implementation for a given 12-month calendar year (1 January to 31 December).
- Capacity building grants in the same country of implementation can be awarded on a yearly basis for a maximum of three consecutive years.
- Emergency grant applicants can be submitted and awarded at any time during the year. They can cover a maximum period of 12 months and cannot be renewed or prolonged.

Eligibility Criteria

Only applications by civil society organizations and other channels of assistance (for example, hospitals and professional associations) (hereafter organizations) are admissible. Applications by governmental, parliamentary or administrative entities, political parties or national liberation movements are inadmissible.
Projects aiming to establish a new organization are inadmissible. Organizations should be in operation for at least one year before submitting an application to the Fund.
The Fund distinguishes between the following categories of applicant organizations:
- First-time applicants: organizations which have never applied to the Fund;
- Returning applicants: organizations which applied to the Fund, divided into two sub-categories:
  - organizations which have never received a grant;
  - organizations which have received a grant from the Fund in the past but not in the previous year(s);
On-going applicants: organizations which are currently receiving a grant (direct assistance, capacity building or emergency) from the Fund, divided in two subcategories:
- organizations submitting a continuation of a funded project proposal in the same country of implementation;
- organizations submitting a different project or a different type of grant proposal (direct assistance, capacity building or emergency) in the same country of implementation, or a project in a different country of implementation.