3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "While removal of de jure barriers is necessary, it is not sufficient...The formal removal of barriers and the introduction of temporary special measures to encourage the equal participation of both men and women in the public life of their societies are essential prerequisites to true equality in political life...States parties have an obligation to ensure that temporary special measures are clearly designed to support the principle of equality and therefore comply with constitutional principles which guarantee equality to all citizens."
- "States parties are under an obligation to take all appropriate measures, including the enactment of appropriate legislation that complies with their Constitution, to ensure that organizations such as political parties and trade unions, which may not be subject directly to obligations under the Convention, do not discriminate against women and respect the principles contained in articles 7 and 8."
- "Where countries have developed effective temporary strategies in an attempt to achieve equality of participation, a wide range of measures has been implemented, including recruiting, financially assisting and training women candidates, amending electoral procedures, developing campaigns directed at equal participation, setting numerical goals and quotas and targeting women for appointment to public positions such as the judiciary or other professional groups that play an essential part in the everyday life of all societies."
- "Measures that have been adopted by some political parties include setting aside for women a certain minimum number or percentage of positions on their executive bodies, ensuring that there is a balance between the number of male and female candidates nominated for election, and ensuring that women are not consistently assigned to less favourable constituencies or to the least advantageous positions on a party list. States parties should ensure that such temporary special measures are specifically permitted under anti-discrimination legislation or other constitutional guarantees of equality."
- "Ensure that effective remedies as well as full information about them are available to those who claim that their human rights and fundamental freedoms have been violated; they will, inter alia, effectively apply the following remedies."
- "Delimitation of election districts requires remedies that equalize sufficiently the variance among rations of population to representative in various election districts and/or move boundary lines so as not to disempower minorities or constituencies that support a particular political opinion."
- "The delimitation process should: be managed by an independent and impartial body that is representative of the society, comprising persons with the appropriate skills…conducted by one body...include all spheres of government, both national and local."
- "It is a trend in developing countries, as well as in certain established democracies for the demarcation body to be independent from government and to be representative and legitimate in composition and structure."
- "In the interest of promoting plural, multi-party democracy and enhancing integrity of the electoral process, the independence and impartiality of the Boundary Delimitation Commission in drawing up constituency boundaries should be reaffirmed in the constitutions of SADC countries. The tenure of office of the Commissioners should be guaranteed in the Constitution. The drawing up of constituency boundaries should be left to the technical competence of the Boundary Delimitation Commission without political interference. The Commission should consult stakeholders in this process."
- "Although the Covenant does not impose any particular electoral system, any system operating in a State party must be compatible with the rights protected by article 25 and must guarantee and give effect to the free expression of the will of the electors. The principle of one person, one vote, must apply, and within the framework of each State’s electoral system, the vote of one elector should be equal to the vote of another."
- "Regional jurisprudence and recent United Nations General Assembly resolutions recognize ‘that there is no single political system or electoral method that is equally suited to all nations and their people and that the efforts of the international community to enhance the effectiveness of the principle of periodic and genuine elections should not call into question each State’s sovereign right, in accordance with the will of its people, freely to choose and develop its political, social, economic and cultural systems, whether or not they conform to the preferences of other States. Moreover, ‘political systems and electoral processes are subject to historical, political, cultural and religious factors’. Whether a State adopts a majoritarian voting system or one other system of proportional representation is thus a class issue falling with the reserved domain of domestic jurisdiction."
- "Periodic and genuine elections conducted on the basis of equal suffrage also means ‘equality of voting power’; in principle, no vote should carry disproportionately more weight than any other, but that does not necessarily require a system of proportional representation. On a complaint by a minority party member in the United Kingdom, the European Commission of Human Rights interpreted Protocol 1, article 3, to mean that different political parties must be given a reasonable opportunity to present their candidates for election, but did not require an electoral system which guaranteed that the total number of votes cast for each candidate or party be reflected in the composition of the legislature."
- "The general and distant objective set by international law—genuine periodic elections guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors, which shall be the basis of the authority of the government—allows considerable room for variation. Whether an electoral system departs from the permissible range is most likely to be answered by reference to other peremptory international law principles, such as non-discrimination. Does the ‘variation’ have the intent or effect of disenfranchising or devaluing the voting power of particular sections of the population for reasons that ought to be irrelevant to the exercise of political rights, such as race, religion, national or social origin, sex, language, political or other opinion, association with a national minority, birth or other status? If so, then to that extent the electoral system is potentially in breach of international law."
- "Each SADC State should adopt an electoral system in accordance with its own political dispensation, history and party system. The electoral system should be entrenched in the Constitution. The Electoral Act should clearly set out the form, content and operation of the electoral system adopted. All stakeholders, particularly the electorate, should understand the type of electoral system in use; how the state determines the allocation of legislative seats; the nature of representation and the political consequences of the chosen system. Electoral systems should promote and protect fundamental human rights as well as the secrecy of the ballot. The following principles must lie at the heart of the electoral system: broad representation of diverse political interests and population groups; inclusiveness and the political participation of key actors; political accountability of Members of Parliament to the voters; a transparent and legitimate election process and outcome."
- "The constitutional and legal framework should: provide a clear statement on the type of electoral system;"
- "The legal framework should reflect universal and regional standards for a democratic and meaningful election process…. The choice of an election system is of course one of the most fundamental decisions for any democracy."
- "The IPU has noted the need, among others, to strike a balance between two essential considerations: that a legislative election above all must make it possible to designate a cohesive government responsible for conducting a national policy; and that the election primarily must guarantee representation at the national level of the country’s political forces, and reproduce in Parliament as faithful an image as possible of their relative strength. The IPU has also stressed the importance of a reasonable link between the electors and the elected, reflecting those elements of proportionality which also characterize the governing principles of international law."
- "State practice confirms the variety of available choices, and no system can be considered, from an international law perspective, to be more valid than any other, provided it bears a reasonable relationship, in law and in practice, to the internationally prescribed objective."
- "The principle of equal suffrage nevertheless applies also to ‘threshold’ requirements, which can be and are used to deny representation to parties that fail to secure a prescribed percentage of the overall vote. Such criteria are commonly used to reduce the numbers of small or sectional interests in the legislature and to enhance the prospects for the formation of a viable government. Unless compensatory steps are taken, however, this technique can effectively disenfranchise substantial minorities. International standards nevertheless constrain and structure the choices available to States. The underlying obligation of result, combined with principles of equality, reasonableness and proportionality, can be used to mediate between the objective and the means chosen, and to show whether the system and its implementation in practice conform to what is required by international law. In short, the State is not free to use the ‘valid’ electoral technique of the threshold requirement in order to bar particular groups from representation in Parliament."
- "There is no "best" electoral system suitable to all and no universally recognized standard. The choice of electoral system needs to be made with desired goals in mind. The effects which different kinds of electoral system can promote are ultimately contextual and depend on the specific cleavages and divisions within any given society. While some electoral system are certainly more likely to produce, say, more proportional electoral results than others, the overall consequences of electoral systems are highly context-specific."
- "A country does have discretion in its choice of an appropriate electoral system. However, this does not mean that any electoral system or practice chosen by a country is acceptable. A country’s discretion in choosing an electoral system is not unlimited and should be exercised consistently with minimum standards."
- "A country’s choice for its electoral system, if it meets the minimum standard for democratic elections, should be respected."
- "United Nations human rights standards relating to elections are broad in nature and thus may be achieved through a wide variety of political systems. United Nations electoral assistance does not seek to impose any given political model. Rather, it is based upon a realization that there is not single political system or electoral methodology which is appropriate for all peoples and States. While comparative examples provide useful guidance for the construction of democratic institutions that both respond to domestic concerns and conform to international human rights norms, the best formulation for each jurisdiction will ultimately be that shaped by the particular needs, aspirations and historical realities of the people involved, taken within the framework of international standards. … United Nations activity in these areas is conducted in conformity with the basic principles of the sovereignty equality of States and respect for their territorial integrity and political independence, as enunciated in the Charter of the United Nations."
- "The method for aggregating results must be predetermined, visible and verifiable."
- "The legal framework must clearly state the electoral formula that will be used to convert votes into mandates. …The legal framework should provide, in clear and objective language, the procedures for transferring the protocol results of counting, ballots and election materials from lower election commissions to intermediate and higher election commissions for tabulation and safekeeping. ... The legal framework should clearly state whether election authorities might announce partial or preliminary results prior to final certification. If results can be announced prior to final certification, then the legal framework should clearly regulate the process for making such announcements. ...The legal framework should clearly specify the dates for final certification of the election results, how the process of final certification is to occur, including public announcement and notification to candidates of their election, and the terms of offices of elected candidates."
- "(iii) Verification and reconciliation of ballots should be done before counting begins and this should be done in the presence of candidates and all their agents. (iv) In the event of a long lapse of time between the completion of voting and the commencement of the counting, the ballot boxes should be sealed and opened in the presence of polling agents. (v) The Electoral Commission should prepare and make available a time-table of the electoral process, including the acquisition of electoral materials, packaging and distribution to polling centres. The time-table, including all stages of electoral events should, by law, be made accessible to all stakeholders."
- "This right shall be exercised by councils or assemblies composed of members freely elected by secret ballot on the basis of direct, equal, universal suffrage, and which may possess executive organs responsible to them. This provision shall in no way affect recourse to assemblies of citizens, referendums or any other form of direct citizen participation where it is permitted by statute."
- "We reaffirm our commitment to the rule of law."
- "The drawing of boundaries should be undertaken using a transparent and consistent procedure, established by law, and may include the use of criteria such as population size and geographical or administrative boundaries. Electoral boundaries should be regularly reviewed to reflect demographic changes."
- "The transfer of power to the winners must be both committed to by the ruling and opposing parties and the subject of legal provisions for it implementation. In other words, elections must be subject only to the rule of law, and not the whim of the existing Government or any single party."
- "The travaux preparatoires of the [International] Covenant [on Civil and Political Rights] indicate that the framers of the instrument saw this requirement as comprising of two broad elements. The first was procedural, and included the guarantees of periodicity, equality and universality of suffrage, and secrecy of the ballot. The second was outcome-oriented and defined genuine elections as those which reflected the free expression of the will of the electors"
- "Take effective measures to prevent and eliminate discrimination against individuals or communities on the grounds of religion or belief in the recognition, exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in all fields of civil, political, economic, social and cultural life, and to ensure the effective equality between believers and non-believers."
- "[Participating States] will...comply with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), if they are parties, and, if they have not already done so, consider ratifying or acceding to this Convention; States that have ratified or acceded to this Convention with reservations will consider withdrawing them."
- "Effectively implement the obligations in international instruments to which they are parties and take appropriate measures to implement the United Nations Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (FLS)."
- "The body or mechanism created to manage legislative elections impartially and in a balanced fashion will be assigned many specific functions, which could typically include the following:...(vi) ensuring that women and minorities are able to participate fully in the electoral process;"
- "The composition of the EMB should be representative of the society, and the body should comprise at least 30% women."
- "To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country."
- "Every citizen shall enjoy the following rights and opportunities: c. to have access, under general conditions of equality, to the public service of his country."
- "Every citizen shall have the right of equal access to the public service of his country."
- "Everyone shall have the right and opportunity and in the State of which he is a citizen: (c) to have access, on general conditions of equality, to the public service of his country."
- "Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country."
- "Article 25 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for example, provides that every citizen has the right, without discrimination, to take part in the conduct of public affairs, to be elected, and to have equal access to public service in his or her country."
- "An independent electoral authority should be established to supervise the electoral process and to ensure that it is conducted fairly, impartially and in accordance with established laws which are compatible with the Covenant."
- "The bodies responsible for organizing the elections shall be independent or neutral and shall have the confidence of all the political actors. Where necessary, appropriate national consultations shall be organized to determine the nature and the structure of the bodies."
- "Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel, as well as competent legal entities including effective constitutional courts to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising from the conduct of elections."
- "An electoral body, however styled…must…act with impartiality."
- "The legal protection afforded to the independence and status of an electoral body is maximised where it is provided for in a country’s Constitution, although some countries make provision for this and other key features of electoral practice in legislation."
- "The administration of the election has been fair and impartial as between all the political parties taking part."
- "An independent electoral commission is generally considered to be an essential element in the organization of free and fair multi-party elections."
- "An electoral commission ought to be an independent body established under the Constitution. It was shown earlier that its very establishment, under the Constitution of the country concerned, lays the foundations for its independence. The term ‘independence’ in this context means that the electoral commission concerned is not subject to the control of the government of the day or any political party or any other body, and acts impartially and professionally towards all political parties."