Foreign Ministry maintains €484,000 in grants for the promotion of human rights

Eduardo González The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will again allocate up to €484,000 in grants in 2026 for the promotion of human rights at the national level or in the “international sphere of interest to Spain,” the same amount that has been granted since 2021 and significantly higher than that of the 2012-2020 period and even higher than that of the previous “golden age.” According to a resolution from the State Secretariat for Foreign Affairs and Global Affairs, published this Tuesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and signed on April 30 by the Director of the Cabinet of the aforementioned State Secretariat, María Luisa Benítez-Donoso Tarascón, the beneficiaries of these subsidies will be “legally constituted, non-profit private entities based in Spain that have proven prior experience in human rights activities or whose objectives are the dissemination, promotion, or protection of human rights.” The objective of the call for proposals, the resolution continues, is “to contribute to the development, improvement of knowledge, and strengthening of human rights, through the implementation of projects independent of the entity's regular operations, at the national or international level, and of interest to Spain.” When awarding the subsidies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give preference to projects that focus on one of the following areas: the fight against the death penalty, the fight against racism, xenophobia, and other related forms of intolerance; Rights of persons with disabilities, business and human rights, economic, social and cultural rights; human rights to clean water and sanitation, human rights defenders, non-discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation and gender identity; children's rights, rights of victims of terrorism, human trafficking and information technology, artificial intelligence and human rights. The maximum amount will be €484,000, distributed among all successful applicants. The maximum grant awarded may not exceed €20,000. This amount is the same as that granted since 2021, when the Ministry decided to increase by 265% the €175,371.69 offered in 2020. Between 2007 and 2011, the maximum amount of subsidies for human rights promotion activities was €350,000, but in 2012 (at the height of the Spanish risk premium crisis), the State Secretariat for Foreign Affairs reduced this amount by 47%, and from then until 2019 it remained at €184,000. In 2020, after the first wave of COVID-19, it was reduced by 9%. In the previous edition, 124 initiatives were selected, among which the following stood out: ‘Promotion and Protection of the Human Rights of Children with Albinism (PCA) in Schools’, by Fundación África Directo (which was also the most benefited entity in the previous edition, with a similar project), with 9,745 euros, and the project ‘AGROTEH For Human Rights: Fair Digitalization in Spanish Agriculture’, by the Associació Institut d´Estudis de L´Horta Valenciana, with 9,157 euros.

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