Eighth Annual Implementation Meeting of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation

OSCE/ODIHR is hosting the 8^th Annual Implementation Meeting of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation group. The Declaration was formally endorsed by representatives of 22 organizations at a ceremony hosted by the United Nations on 27 October 2005, and led by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former U.S President Jimmy Carter, and NDI Chairperson and former U.S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Since then 23 additional organizations have endorsed the Declaration, and it remains open to future endorsement. This year’s meeting will provide an opportunity for representatives from the 45 organizations that currently endorse the Declaration to reaffirm the values and importance of international election observation while also seeking to increase professionalism and impartiality in this field.

Organizations that have endorsed the Declaration and the accompanying Code of Conduct pledge their commitment to assuring integrity and transparency in international election observation. They agree to use these documents as guiding principles in their work, looking to them to address key issues such as the purpose, scope, and conduct of missions and the importance of harmonizing assessment criteria among groups.

This year’s event will comprise of two main working sessions, one on the role of election observation in early warning and conflict prevention, and the second on follow-up to election observation recommendations. Sub-working group meetings will be held on the themes of the observation of new voting technologies in elections, the observation of campaign finance, gender mainstreaming in election observation, interaction of citizen observer groups with international observers, and the interaction of election observation groups with academia.