IPA CIS International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary

On 10 February 2006, the Regulation on the Establishment of the International Institute for Monitoring the Democracy Development, Parliamentarism, and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of the IPA CIS Member Nations (IPA CIS IIMDD) was approved at a meeting of the IPA CIS Council.

The Institute became the principal platform for compiling and disseminating best practices in organizing elections and referendums and improving electoral legislation across the CIS region.

The IPA CIS IIMDD has developed its own unique observation methodology. The Institute provides expert support for the work of international observers from the Assembly. With the emergence of the IPA CIS IIMDD, the previously existing monopoly on assessing the democratic nature of elections in sovereign states was dismantled.

The IPA CIS IIMDD Offices were established in Baku and Bishkek in 2008 and in Yerevan in 2012.

Over its operational history, the Institute has deployed international observer teams to monitor 123 electoral campaigns (referendums, presidential, parliamentary, and local elections) both in CIS Member States and beyond the CIS region, including the Republic of Serbia, Mongolia, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Republic of Burundi, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of Uganda.

The IPA CIS IIMDD participates in academic activities, including research on democracy development, Parliamentarism and protection of citizens' electoral rights in CIS countries.

It organizes and hosts forums, conferences, roundtables, seminars, and publishes materials based on their outcomes.

In 2021, at the Institute's initiative, the publishing project "Democracy, Elections, Parliamentarism" was launched. Under this project, the following collective monographs were published: "International Election Observation", "Digitalization and Elections", "Standards of Democratic Elections: History and Practice", "Security of the Electoral Process", "Referendums in the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States" and the "Dictionary of the International Observer".

More than 50 experts, prominent scholars, politicians, and public figures from CIS countries and other states, participate in the analytical and research support of the IPA CIS IIMDD's work.

The Institute has developed a youth engagement program, the main goal of which is to overcome political apathy and nihilism. Under its auspices, the international Youth Discussion Club "Tavricheskiy" operates, a student olympiad on knowledge of global electoral systems is held, and an electoral school is conducted.