NOVACT participates in the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) to be held in Ukraine from 20 to 29 May.
The next presidential elections are held in Ukraine on May 25th. The turbulent context that exists in the country has reactivated upon social and government demand, the presence of European security and cooperation organization for electoral observation mission through their Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said recently that elections will be difficult if kept in the east the levels of violence that have been achieved in the last days. However, the OSCE has already prepared a monitoring mission that will start work in Ukraine from May 20th, after the UN report on the situation of civilians in the region is released.
Felipe Daza, codirector of NOVACT-International Institute for Nonviolent Action, will be part of the electoral observation team, consisting of about 900 short-term observers of the 57 states of Europe, North America and Central Asia that are part of the OSCE.
The mission will work through groups of two people, of various nationalities, deployed throughout the country. These observers will assess the electoral process in terms of its compliance with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections and national legislation. Also, they will follow campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant state bodies, the implementation of the legislative framework and the electoral dispute resolution. As part of the observation, they will also conducted comprehensive monitoring of the media.
In the last mission of the OSCE, which forced negotiations following the kidnapping of eight staff members of the organization, it has been intensified the security training and the Special Observation Mission, which remains in the country, reports regularly news updates about the conflict situation.
The day after the election, the observation mission will publish a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions. Approximately eight weeks after the end of the electoral process, a final report on the observation of the entire process will be issued.
The OSCE is the largest regional security organization, created with the aim of preventing conflicts in Europe and its surroundings. The body has its origin in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki in 1975. Currently, the organization brings together 57 states from Europe,North America and Central Asia.
