Election Obligations & Standards Database

Summary

All branches of the government and other public or governmental authorities are responsible for meeting the obligation to give effect to human rights.

Obligations

State Must Take Necessary Steps to Give Effect to Rights

Election Parts

Issues

Criteria

The state took the steps necessary to give effect to rights during the electoral process, including through the dispute resolution process
The electoral system allowed multiparty participation and actual and equal representation
The legal framework for elections included the protection of fundamental rights and made international obligations domestically binding
The electoral management body took steps to implement an electoral process that fulfilled and protected human rights
All branches of the government are responsible for protecting human rights, including those responsible for administering election processes

Quotes

The obligations of the Covenant in general and article 2 in particular are binding on every State Party as a whole. All branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial), and other public or governmental authorities, at whatever level - national, regional or local - are in a position to engage the responsibility of the State Party. The executive branch that usually represents the State Party internationally, including before the Committee, may not point to the fact that an action incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant was carried out by another branch of government as a means of seeking to relieve the State Party from responsibility for the action and consequent incompatibility. This understanding flows directly from the principle contained in article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, according to which a State Party 'may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty....In this respect, the Committee reminds States Parties with a federal structure of the terms of article 50, according to which the Covenant's provisions 'shall extend to all parts of federal states without any limitations or exceptions.