The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and free and fair elections. It employs around 3,460 people, mostly in its field operations but also in its secretariat in Vienna, Austria, and its institutions. It has observer status at the United Nations.
On the federal level, Russia elects a president as head of state and a parliament, one of the two chambers of the Federal Assembly. The president is elected for, at most, two consecutive six-year terms by the people. The Federal Assembly has two chambers. The State Duma has 450 members, elected for five-year terms. The Federation Council is not directly elected; each of the 89 federal subjects of Russia sends 2 delegates to the Federal Council, for a total of 208 (178 + 30, members.
Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 15 October 2003. As expected, Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing president, Heydar Aliyev, was officially elected with an overwhelming majority in a vote international observers deemed not to be free or fair.
La Strada International (LSI) is an international NGO network addressing the trafficking of persons in Europe.
Elections in Kazakhstan are held on a national level to elect a President and the Parliament, which is divided into two bodies, the Majilis and the Senate. Local elections for maslihats are held every five years.
Election monitoring involves the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or from a non-governmental organization (NGO). The monitoring parties aim primarily to assess the conduct of an election process on the basis of national legislation and of international election standards. There are national and international election observers.
Quick count is a method for verification of election results by projecting them from a sample of the polling stations.
Presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan on 10 January 1999. Incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev won the election with over 80% of the vote, and was sworn into office on 20 January 1999. Most observers viewed the election as blatantly unfair, further confirming that Nazarbayev was not interested in promoting a democratic system of government. Voter turnout was reported to be 87%.
The Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues is the main structure within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) assisting governments in implementing their commitments relating to the rights of Roma and Sinti populations. The Contact Point is located within the Warsaw-based OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
Janez Lenarčič is a Slovenian diplomat who has been serving as European Commissioner for Crisis Management in the Von der Leyen Commission since 2019. He is a former director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights within the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Presidential elections were held in Azerbaijan on 9 October 2013. The result was a victory for incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, who received a reported 85% of the vote, whilst leading opposition candidate Jamil Hasanli finished second with a reported 6% of the vote.
Electoral integrity refers to the fairness of the entire voting process and how well the process protects against election subversion, voter suppression, and other threats to free and fair elections. The consequences of unfree or unfair elections can include doubts in the legitimacy of the outcome, loss of faith in the democratic system, and reduced future participation.
Michael Georg Link is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has served a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2013 and again since 2017. In addition to his parliamentary mandate, he has been serving as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2022.
Thomas Greminger is a Swiss diplomat. He served as Secretary-General for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from July 2017 to July 2020. Since May 2021, he has been the Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). He is a general staff officer in the Swiss army.
Christian Strohal is an Austrian diplomat. He was formerly the director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights from 2003 to 2008.
Matteo Mecacci is an Italian diplomat serving as director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR). In the past, he was a Radical Party Member of Parliament in Italy and elected in the lists of the Democratic Party, President of the International Campaign for Tibet and leading advocate for the International Criminal Court, the abolition of the death penalty, religious freedom and other prominent human rights campaigns.
Dame Audrey Francis Glover,, is a British international lawyer, experienced election observer, former director of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (1994-1997).
Katarzyna Gardapkhadze - current CEO of the Responsible Leadership Academy and a former First Deputy Director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR), in the post from September 2016 until 30 June 2021. In 2020, during a period without a politically appointed Director, she served as ODIHR's Director's Alternate.
The Vienna Mechanism and the Moscow Mechanism are a linked pair of agreements on confidence and security-building measures on human rights established in 1989, 1990 and 1991 by the members states of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), which later became the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The Vienna Mechanism establishes procedures for raising and responding to participating states' requests on human rights issues, while the Moscow Mechanism adds procedures for independent "missions of experts" and "missions of rapporteurs" to visit and report on human rights issues.
The Charter for European Security is an international agreement for the preservation and safeguarding of peaceful order in Europe. It was adopted on 19 November 1999 in Istanbul as the final document of the OSCE Summit Conference by 55 European, Asian and American states. Together with the Helsinki Final Act (1975), the Charter of Paris (1990) and the subsequent Astana Summit Declaration (2010), the Charter for European Security forms the basis for a system of political commitments and a comprehensive concept of security. The concept of security encompasses politico-military aspects, economic and environmental aspects and humanitarian aspects. Following the adoption of the Charter for European Security at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in November, the ‘Platform for Co-operative Security’ was created to strengthen co-operation between the OSCE and other international organisations/institutions in order to make better use of the resources of the international community.
