11 December 2002 00:00
CONVENTION ON ELECTION STANDARDS, ELECTORAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Explanatory Note to the Draft Convention "On Election Standards, Electoral Rights and Freedoms"
The Convention "On Election Standards, Electoral Rights and Freedoms" was drafted with the aim of summarizing in a legally binding international-law act the experience of legal regulation and administration of democratic elections accumulated by the Council of Europe and various states; specifying and amplifying the basic provisions set forth in Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (entered into force in 1954) to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (November 4, 1950, entered into force on September 3, 1953) and in the other documents; defining the international-law features of the modern democratic electoral process in new integrated Europe.
The draft Convention consists of 27 articles which are grouped in four blocks. The first block deals with the standards of democratic elections, with the list of such standards including election principles: periodic and mandatory, free, genuine, fair, open and public elections based on universal and equal suffrage and held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures assuring to voters the freedom of voting with effective judicial protection, effective civic (public) and international monitoring.
This list also includes language guarantees, which is particularly important for ensuring participation in elections of national minorities and ethic groups, small indigenous peoples and nationalities. The principle of openness and publicity as an inalienable component of the mechanism of efficient management of state affairs keynotes all organizational elements of the modern electoral process. An important element of a new approach to the development of international election standards is introduction of a mechanism guaranteeing the electoral rights and freedoms of election participants.
The second block of the draft Convention defines the status of election participants and the technological infrastructure of the organization of the modern electoral process, the fundamentals of the mechanism assuring realization of equal legal possibilities for all election participants. The new approaches are based on a more efficient and concrete procedure of public monitoring of elections, on stronger judicial guarantees.
The draft Convention lays down the fundamentals of the status and powers of observers, candidates' agents, the procedure for filing complaints against violations of the electoral rights and freedoms of election participants with courts and other bodies as well as the basic principles of information coverage of elections and election campaigns of candidates, political parties (coalitions) in the mass media and telecommunications media. In view of the fact that corruption is becoming one of the factors undermining the trust of citizens in institutions of state power, in elections generally, and the development of measures for preventing financial abuses must pass from the sphere of recommendations to the sphere of concrete international obligations the draft Convention lays down the general principles for the formation of a transparent funding mechanism of elections and election campaigns of candidates, political parties.
The third block of the draft Convention defines the parameters of the status and powers of international observers. The presence of international observers contributes to the publicity and openness of elections. On this basis international observers are granted wide and real powers and required to perform their functions and exercise their rights abiding by such principles as neutrality and impartiality, refusal to express any preferences for participants in the electoral process before the end of voting, non-interference in the electoral process.
The concluding block of the draft Convention sets forth the measures which must not be regarded as discriminatory in the legislative regulation of the national electoral process; it defines the obligations of the States Parties to the Convention and regulates the matters relating to the signing, ratification and entry into force of the Convention.
In general, introduction and concrete formulation of the European election standards will give a new political and legal impetus to synchronization and harmonization of the international and national legal realm, realization of the electoral rights and freedoms of a human being and a citizen, preparation and administration of democratic elections. It will reduce certain inconsistency, separation and duplication of the relevant rules and recommendations contained in the documents of various international organizations, impart a binding international-law significance to the standards of democratic elections and to the measures guaranteeing the electoral rights and freedoms of participants in the electoral process.
Formulation of election standards, electoral rights and freedoms in the format of a European convention will make it possible to lay a more solid international legal foundation for the activity of the European Court of Human Rights which affords legal protection of the rights and fundamental freedoms of a human being and a citizen.
The text of the Draft Convention "On Election Standards, Electoral Rights and Freedoms" you can find here: http://www.cikrf.ru/conference/conference_konv_en_proekt2.htm
___________________________________________________________
© Publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
| 
RUSSIA IN FACTS