After their experience in Zimbabwe, leading observer groups
recognized the need to provide greater clarity about their objectives and
methods. Some guidelines already existed, contained in handbooks published by
NDI and OSCE/ODIHR, as well as Larry Garber’s 1984 handbook, the
Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Free and Fair Elections: International Law and
Practice (1994), and International IDEA’s Code of Conduct for Ethical and
Professional Observation of Elections (1997), which was produced in
consultation with other major organizations and EMBs. This document concisely
presented observation’s objectives and standards of good practice, organized
around ethical principles (such as transparency and neutrality) central to
meaningful observation.[i]
Building on this premise, NDI’s Integrity Project, and lessons learned from
Zimbabwe and other contentious elections of the early 2000s, The Carter Center,
NDI, and UNEAD began meeting formally to build consensus and professionalism in
the field of election observation. In October 2003, The Carter Center hosted a
regionally diverse group of 15 intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations in Atlanta to share collective experience with the aim of
determining the parameters, content, and format of a Declaration of Principles
and Code of Conduct. The consultation process continued with a Carter
Center-EISA forum in 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa that brought together
citizen observer groups and members of African EMBs to ensure sensitivity to
African perspectives in the drafting process, followed by a European
Commission-sponsored meeting in Brussels where final details were decided.[ii]
On Oct. 27, 2005, 22 organizations endorsed the Declaration
of Principles in a formal session of the United Nations in New York. Participants
agreed that it would not be legally binding but would rather serve as a set of
best practices, retain flexibility, and be open for endorsement indefinitely. A
key difference between the Declaration of Principles and earlier guidelines was
that endorsers quickly developed a community of practice that meets regularly
to monitor and ensure the document’s implementation. This process began in
London in 2006 with the first of what are annual “implementation meetings” of
the Declaration of Principles endorsers. The 2006 meeting focused on the donor
community’s role in fostering effective observation.
Recognizing that meeting the Declaration of Principles’
standards of professionalism required a holistic look at the electoral process,
observer groups pushed further the emerging trend toward long-term observation
in the years following its adoption. Emphasis had evolved from early high-level
political delegations to a focus on election day polling procedures, then to
missions that paired high levels of technical and political expertise with
teams of long-term observers to assess the entire electoral cycle where
possible. The next decade also inaugurated the use of tablet and mobile phone
technology to speed reporting and synthesis of data collected by observers, the
solidification of assessment standards, and the testing of new modes of
collaboration with citizen observers. At the forefront of these changes, the
annual Declaration of Principles implementation meetings sought to share best
practices and confront mutual challenges. Recurrent themes during the first 10
years included the harmonization of meaningful standards for assessing
electoral technologies; building consensus on international obligations as a
basis for assessment; follow-up to observer recommendations, or how to
translate them into reform; coordination with citizen observers; and methods
for evaluating the impact of observation.
[i]
International IDEA, Code of Conduct for Ethical
and Professional Observation of Elections (Stockholm: International IDEA,
1997).
