Terms of Reference
GRC/RFP/P26-066
Call for Proposals under the Micro-Grants Scheme supported by the European Commission under the project “No Child Forgotten: Strengthening Child-Sensitive Justice and Protection Responses to Deportation in Ukraine”
| Item | Information |
| Contract Number | NDICI CRISIS FPI/2026/489-863 |
| Project Name | No Child Forgotten: Strengthening Child-Sensitive Justice and Protection Responses to Deportation in Ukraine |
| Contracting organisation | Stichting Global Rights Compliance Foundation |
| Donor | European Union (EU) |
| Total funding available | EUR 45,000 |
| Number of anticipated grants | 2–3 |
| Lot 1 | Documentation |
| Lot 2 | Advocacy and Campaigning |
| Application deadline | 1 October 2026 |
| Clarification deadline | 17 September 2026 |
| Application language | English and Ukrainian |
| Contact | procurement@grcompliance.org |
1. Background and Context of the Call for Proposals
1.1 Background to the Project
This Micro-Grant Scheme forms part of the EU-funded project “No Child Forgotten: Strengthening Child-Sensitive Justice and Protection Responses to Deportation in Ukraine”.
The project seeks to strengthen child-sensitive justice and protection responses to crimes related to the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children by improving the capacity of civil society organisations and national justice actors to document, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate these crimes in accordance with international standards.
Recognising that children affected by conflict require specialised approaches, the Project promotes the integration of child-friendly, trauma-informed and rights-based practices throughout the justice process.
The Project operates under two objectives:
Objective 1: Child-Friendly Documentation and Adjudication of Crimes Related to the Deportation of Children is Strengthened, and Justice Outcomes for Child Victims are Enhanced
This objective seeks to support the implementation of minimum standards and best practices to improve effective, child-friendly documentation and adjudication of crimes related to the deportation of children.
Objective 2: Engagements with Child Victims of Deportation-related Crimes are Conducted according to Enhanced Child-Friendly and Trauma-Informed Processes and Procedures
This objective builds the capacity of key actors dealing with deported and returned children to engage with them in a child-sensitive manner that recognises the child’s best interests as a primary consideration.
The Micro-Grant Scheme is intended to enable the implementation of clearly defined operational activities that directly contribute to the objectives of the No Child Forgotten Project while ensuring robust safeguarding, financial accountability and technical oversight.
1.2 Context in Ukraine
Since the armed conflict in Ukraine commenced in 2014, Ukrainian children have been victims of, and disproportionately affected by, a wide variety of international crimes which have had significant physical, psychological, and developmental impacts.[1]
Starting in 2014, and especially following the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has implemented a state policy involving the large-scale displacement of Ukrainian children within occupied Ukrainian territory and outside Ukraine to Russia and Belarus.[2] Multiple independent investigations report that children have been taken from all occupied regions of Ukraine (Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia). Among the children who have been displaced are those who are particularly vulnerable, including orphans, children with disabilities, children from low-income families, children separated from their families, and children with parents in the military.[3] A large number of these vulnerable children lived in residential institutions at the start of the full-scale invasion and were particularly targeted for displacement by Russia.[4]
This conduct forms part of a broader system of violations that has been directed toward Ukrainian children across the TOTs, where they have been subjected to militarisation, indoctrination, and systematic cultural assimilation, including through fostering and adoption programs.[5] The system of militarisation and indoctrination of children in the TOTs implicates a myriad of human rights violations, including the right to identity, the right to education, the right to freedom of thought and expression and the right to freedom of association, and may amount to international crimes such as the crimes against humanity of persecution and other inhumane acts.
Displacement, disrupted education, child-family separation and exposure to violence can lead to severe psychosocial impacts for children, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, while separation from families, communities and their country—whether temporary through placement in re-education facilities or permanent through deportation and adoption—may cause further and lasting harm. Children remaining in the occupied territories face intensive Russia-centric ideological programming, militarisation in youth groups, and punishment for perceived support for Ukraine. This conduct creates conditions that undermine children’s Ukrainian cultural identity and personal development, leading to long-term psychosocial harm, requiring specialised responses for care and rehabilitation.
2. Purpose and Objectives of the Micro-Grant Scheme
GRC is launching a Micro-Grant Scheme open to Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations (“CSOs”) to co-develop initiatives supporting justice outcomes for children impacted by deportation, forcible transfer and related conduct, including militarisation and indoctrination.
The Scheme is designed to complement GRC’s legal and analytical capacity with the reach, trust and local knowledge of Ukrainian civil society and to ensure that documentation work translates into tangible advocacy and accountability products.
In addition to financial support, GRC will provide ongoing mentorship, legal advice and technical support to selected CSOs.
The purpose of the Micro-Grant Scheme is to enable Ukrainian CSOs to deliver, in partnership with GRC, documentation and advocacy activities that strengthen justice and accountability for crimes against and affecting children and advance child-friendly justice.
The specific objectives of the Scheme are to:
- expand documentation of the full range of crimes accompanying deportation or forcible transfer and/or affecting children in Ukraine, including intersectional harms relating to gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, age or disability status;
- ensure that documentation generated by CSOs is converted into legally robust analysis suitable for sharing with relevant justice and accountability bodies or for use in public-facing advocacy reports;
- strengthen the technical and institutional capacity of grantee CSOs in trauma-informed, child-sensitive documentation methodology and legal analysis;
- support Ukrainian civil society-led advocacy and campaigning on child-friendly justice and the rights of child victims of international crimes; and
- build durable working relationships between GRC and Ukrainian CSOs that extend beyond the life of individual grants.
The Scheme is expected to support a minimum of two CSOs across the two priority areas set out below.
3. Funding Available and Grant Parameters
A total maximum amount of EUR 45,000 is available under this Call for Proposals.
GRC anticipates awarding two (2) to three (3) micro-grants, subject to the quality of applications received, satisfactory completion of due diligence, availability of funds and compliance with the requirements of this Call.
The maximum amount of financial support available for any single micro-grant action under this Call is EUR 35,000, including where an application is submitted jointly by two eligible CSOs. GRC reserves the right to award below 35,000.
Applicants must submit a detailed and realistic budget in EUR demonstrating how the amount requested has been calculated and how each proposed cost is necessary for implementation of the proposed action.
The final amount awarded may be lower than the amount requested. The exact amount of each micro-grant will be determined by GRC on the basis of the proposed activities, their relevance to the objectives of the Call, the reasonableness and necessity of the proposed costs, the duration and scale of the proposed action, value for money, the applicant’s implementation capacity and the availability of funds. GRC may request revisions to a proposed budget before award and may determine that individual budget lines or costs are ineligible or should be reduced. Any such revision will not materially alter the substance of the selected proposal.
GRC reserves the right to determine the final number and distribution of grants between the two Lots on the basis of applications received, evaluation results, geographical and thematic coverage, available funding and the objectives of the EU-funded Action.
GRC is under no obligation to award the full EUR 45,000 available under this Call.
The grant may finance up to 100% of eligible costs of the proposed action.
Co-financing is permitted but is not mandatory. Any co-financing included in an application must be clearly identified in the proposed budget.
No expenditure may be incurred or charged to the micro-grant before the commencement date specified in the signed Micro-Grant Agreement.
3.1 Payment Arrangements
The payment structure applicable to each Grant Recipient will be determined by GRC following completion of due diligence, taking into account GRC’s internal assessment of the Grant Recipient’s financial, operational and compliance risk.
Depending on the assessed level of financial, operational and compliance risk, GRC may provide an initial pre-financing payment followed by one or more instalments and/or a final balance. Subsequent payments may be subject to satisfactory implementation, timely submission and approval of required reports, and verification of eligible expenditure.
GRC may revise the payment schedule, payment conditions or applicable financial controls during implementation where the Grant Recipient’s risk profile materially changes or where issues are identified through monitoring, reporting, verification or audit. The specific payment schedule, amounts, conditions and any applicable controls for each award will be set out in the Micro-Grant Agreement. No payment structure or pre-financing arrangement should be assumed by an applicant prior to execution of the Micro-Grant Agreement.
4. Priority Areas
Applicants must apply under one of the two priority areas below. The EUR 45,000 represents the total funding available across both Lots combined; no fixed amount is reserved for either Lot.
4.1 Lot One: Documentation of Deportation-Related Crimes Against and Affecting Children in Ukraine
Purpose and Scope
Grant amount: up to 30,000-35,000 euros
Indicative implementation period: up to 6-10 months
Under this priority, GRC seeks to establish a coordinated partnership with selected Ukrainian CSOs with demonstrated expertise in documenting crimes against and affecting children (“CAAC”) living in occupied territories or unlawfully deported from Ukraine.
The partnership aims to strengthen child-centred documentation capacity, promote child-friendly justice outputs, contribute to understanding of the full range of harms and impacts experienced by children, and generate high-quality documentation that may support future accountability processes and advocacy initiatives.
GRC will fund the selected CSO to conduct documentation of crimes against and affecting children related to the forcible transfer and deportation process and associated crimes.
The CSO will partner with GRC, which will provide legal and analytical support, to jointly produce an analytical product, either in the form of a submission to an accountability mechanism, such as UN Human Rights Bodies, the International Criminal Court, Ukrainian prosecutorial bodies or third-state prosecutorial bodies, or an advocacy report.
The aim of this Priority is to contribute to an expanded understanding of the full range of crimes related to Russia’s policy of deportation and forcible transfer and its treatment of children in temporarily occupied territories. This may include inhumane treatment, sexual and reproductive violence, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, persecution, conduct related to indoctrination and militarisation, and violations of the rights to education, cultural identity and freedom of thought and expression.
The proposed methodology must integrate a gender and intersectional lens at every stage. Children may experience deportation-related crimes differently according to factors including gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or perceived identity, and proposed approaches should appropriately reflect these differences.
Eligible Activities
- identification, outreach to and safe engagement of victims, families and witnesses of deportation-related crimes against children;
- documentation of incidents using a trauma-informed, child-sensitive and evidentially sound methodology aligned with GRC’s documentation standards and relevant international protocols, including, where applicable, the Murad Code and Berkeley Protocol;
- secure storage and management of collected information, including appropriate chain-of-custody procedures;
- referral of documented cases into GRC’s case-building and analytical processes;
- contribution of documented material, analysis and/or testimony to a joint analytical product, subject to informed consent and appropriate protection safeguards; and
- participation in joint analysis, drafting, review and dissemination of a joint analytical product.
The Full package can be accessed Here