Access to funding for the work of civil society organizations on the protection and promotion of human rights from public or private sources is an integral part of the right to freedom of association and is crucial for the exercise of rights and the work of human rights defenders. This thematic report is part of the ongoing work of the Human Rights House Zagreb (HRH) on monitoring the exercise and promotion of the rights of human rights defenders in Croatia.

Building on previous research work and analyses by other relevant stakeholders, the HRH research team identified four groups of problems and challenges:

1) access to funding for advocacy and research activities and activities that enable work on public policies;

2) access to funding from national and local public sources;

3) access to funding that can cover work on current human rights issues;

4) administrative burden and administrative obstacles to access funding

These thematic blocks structure this thematic report, created on the basis of qualitative action research using a semi-structured interview method. 10 civil society organizations were involved, active in the fields of human rights, anti-discrimination, refugee, migrant, and asylum seeker rights, women's rights, the provision of free legal aid, the rights of LGBTQI persons, transitional justice, environmental protection, democratization, transparency and anti-corruption, the rights of persons with disabilities and other socially and economically vulnerable groups.