In March 2023, GNDEM Board and Coordinating Committee members gathered in Washington, D.C. to discuss the state of citizen election observation around the world as part of the implementation process of the Declaration of Global Principles (DoGP). From March 7-8, GNDEM Board and Coordinating Committee members identified strategic priorities for the network, discussed the shifting political and human rights landscape for citizen election observation and shared best practices from their own organizations and networks. The meeting represents the first time GNDEM leadership have convened in-person since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was a joyful reunion for peers that have not seen each other in-person for a long time.
The Coordinating Committee included representatives from all of GNDEM’s regional networks, which were represented by organizations including the Civil Network OPORA, Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Costa Rica Integra, Alianza Civica, the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), Centre for Monitoring and Research (CEMI), National Elections Watch (NEW), European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), Al-Hayat Center, Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) and Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG).
On the agenda, the Coordinating Committee discussed GNDEM’s strategic communications plans and examined international and regional trends in the state of observer rights, electronic election technologies, and systematic methodologies for observation. The Coordinating Committee also discussed updates from coordination efforts between GNDEM and the international election observer community around the recognition of election observers as human rights defenders and the Communique on Benefits of Co-operation between International and Non-Partisan Citizen Election Observer Organizations.
Notably, the Coordinating Committee also accepted an invitation to GNDEM to join the Global Network for Securing Global Integrity (GNSEI), a new initiative to provide a platform for information-sharing and collaboration among election-related organizations and networks. GNDEM now stands alongside ANFREL, ENEMO, E-HORN, RedOIE, the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), and others to bolster norms around electoral integrity through this platform.
The meeting was attended by Zlatko Vujović, a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Election Monitoring Network (GNDEM) and the President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Monitoring and Research.