President Carter, Secretary Albright, distinguished guests, excellencies,
ladies and gentlemen and my dear friends, it is a pleasure to welcome you all
to the United Nations, particularly the representatives of the two dozen organizations
that are today endorsing the Declaration of Principles for International Election
Observation.
I am honoured to be joined by two dear friends who have been
tireless champions of democracy during their distinguished public careers -- former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
We are here to signal our endorsement of a pioneering initiative that should strengthen
the role of the international community in supporting democratic elections around
the world.
Just
last month at the World Summit, the Member States of the United Nations reaffirmed
that democracy is a universal value. The spread of democracy around the world
has been one of the signal transformations of our times. Elections - observed
by the international community, or assisted in other ways by it - are at the heart
of this inspiring story. It is a story interwoven with that of the United Nations
itself.
Our Organization was first called upon to observe elections in
1947 on the Korean Peninsula. Through the era of trusteeship and decolonisation,
the United Nations supervised and observed plebiscites, referenda and elections
worldwide. UN-monitored elections were key elements of the transitions to peace
in places such as Namibia, Cambodia, and Central America - and in helping bring
about the end to apartheid. Today, the United Nations rarely fields its own observers.
This task is more commonly carried out by regional organizations and international
NGOs, frequently in conjunction with national groups.
But electoral assistance
remains a strategic and high-profile activity for the United Nations, particularly
in nations emerging from conflict or undergoing fragile political transitions
-- from Afghanistan to Burundi to Iraq, and just a few weeks ago in Liberia where
President Carter participated. Credible elections can be a crucial step in the
transition from war to peace. However, unfair or fraudulent elections can become
detonators of conflict. Elections can also be misused by those wanting to create
an appearance of democracy without permitting its substance. The presence of international
election observers -- fielded always at the invitation of sovereign States --
can make a big difference in ensuring that elections genuinely move the democratic
process forward. Their mere presence can dissuade misconduct, ensure transparency,
and inspire confidence in the process.
The public statements made by observer
missions, both before and after an election, can have enormous political significance.
For the international community, the opportunity to assist carries with it a great
responsibility. And that, in essence, is the spirit of today's initiative -- to
ensure that election observers are always making a positive contribution. The
Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, and its accompanying
Code of Conduct, marks an important step forward. Among the many sensible guidelines
it establishes is agreement by organizations sending observers that they will
act with total impartiality.
They agree also to examine all of the relevant
stages of the elections, and not simply parachute in on the day of the vote. They
commit to take no funding from host governments whose elections they are observing,
and to insist on freedom of movement and full access to information throughout
the many stages of the election. Organizations also undertake carefully to select
and train members of the observation team, ensuring that they have no political
bias that might affect their judgment. Each and every observer is asked to adhere
to a Code of Conduct.
The declaration is also very explicit in committing
organizations never to send an election observation mission to a country if its
presence would be misinterpreted as giving legitimacy to an election that clearly
is not democratic. The community of organizations providing international election
observers has grown and diversified over the years. Until now, however, there
has been no set of commonly held standards governing this important work. Now
we do -- and we must make full use of them.
We should also make it a priority
to strengthen local civil society groups to play the role of electoral watchdogs
within their own national arenas. Our ultimate goal therefore should be to work
ourselves out of a job. But until that is possible, let us live up to these guidelines.
I am very glad, on behalf of the UN Secretariat, to endorse them, and to pledge
to follow them fully in our work.