Reflecting the global democratic decline, observer rights are under threat around the world and across Africa. In many countries, political space is closing, and restrictive laws and regulations are being used to undermine the ability of citizen organizations to observe electoral processes. The development of independent, non-partisan citizen observer organizations in every region of the world is one of the most important democratic achievements of the past 40 years. Citizen observers across Africa are pushing back against closing space and administrative burdens to promote more inclusive, accountable and transparent elections. 

In response, a side event entitled “Defending Citizen Observer Rights: Pushing Back on Closing Space and Administrative Burdens” was organized on the eve of the Second Summit for Democracy (S4D2) regional gathering in Zambia focused on electoral integrity. The Observer Rights side event was hosted by the Zambian citizen observer organization, Christian Churches Monitoring Group, and was sponsored by the four African citizen observer networks:

• The Elections Support Network for Southern Africa (ESN-SA), 

• the East and Horn of African Election Observers Network (E-HORN), 

• the West African Election Observers Network (WAEON), and

• the African Election Observers Network (AfEONet).

The event featured:

• A welcome video message from United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Right Defenders, Mary Lawlor, who spoke on explicitly recognizing for the first time ever election observers, including citizen observers as human rights defenders.

• A panel of leaders from respected citizen observer organizations shared their first-hand experiences dealing with closing spaces and administrative burdens, how these have affected their organization’s observation efforts and how they have sought to protect their rights.

• Speakers from international observer organizations on how they can support citizen observer rights building on the recently adopted joint communique on cooperation between international and citizen observers.

• Closing remarks by USAID Assistant Administrator for Africa Dr. Monde Muyangwa focusing on the role that development partners can play in supporting citizen observers.

At the event, a message of solidarity with the citizen observer organization, the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) from Montenegro, was made. This builds on the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors’ (GNDEM) statement of solidarity following threats made against CeMI.

Participants made a series of recommendations on how to strengthen citizen observer rights, including: 

• Citizen observer organizations need to stand in solidarity and support one another. Regional and global networks provide platforms for this and can be better utilized.

• Civil society in democratic societies needs to push for stronger protections for citizen election observers to serve as a model to make it more difficult for authoritarians to undermine observer rights.

• We should create the first systematic assessment of observer rights across Africa and around the world that provides empirical information to advocate for reforms.

• Citizen observers, international observers and election management bodies should work together to formulate international standards for accreditation. These standards should be based on recognizing the value of accreditation while ensuring it is neither burdensome nor excessive, with procedures that are tailored to the different realities of citizen and international observers.

• There needs to be greater access to election related data, based on the Open Election Data Initiative (OEDI) and potentially taking advantage of the Open Government Partnership framework.

The event’s recording is available online.

Author: Johandra Delgado, Program Officer on the Elections and Political Processes team and Kion Bordbar, Program Associate on the Elections and Political Processes team

The event was organized by NDI in partnership with the Open Society Foundation (OSF).

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NDI is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization that works in partnership around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms, and values to secure a better quality of life for all. NDI envisions a world where democracy and freedom prevail, with dignity for all.