Through the Democratic Election Standards initiative, The Carter Center collaborates with scholars, human rights experts, and election assistance practitioners to advance genuine elections worldwide.
The Carter Center recognizes that human rights obligations cannot be fulfilled without consensus among stakeholders in an electoral process. For this reason, the Center has worked to build fruitful relationships with international and citizen observers, human rights bodies, electoral management bodies, legal scholars, political scientists, and others. These efforts have in some cases led to formal partnerships with memoranda of understanding, and in other cases to workshops or joint election observation missions.
Read more about:
- History and Events: A timeline of key events and partnerships related to observation methodology and international standards undertaken by The Carter Center over more than a decade.
- Declaration of Principles Working Group: Outlines the goals and continued significance of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, the definitive document guiding the field.
- Human Rights and Election Standards: The Carter Center’s newest continuing initiative, which is bringing the elections community together with U.N. and regional human rights mechanisms to advance a human rights-based approach to elections.
