International election monitoring missions play an important role in the promotion of democracy and human rights. Ireland’s election observation roster has been put in place to facilitate the deployment at short notice of suitably qualified individuals to participate in international election observation missions, organised in the main by the EU and the OSCE. While some election dates can be anticipated in advance, many ballots can take place unexpectedly, with decisions to mount observation missions typically taken by the EU or OSCE when an election is in prospect, at times at short notice. For each election observation mission, the EU or OSCE set the specific skills and requirements for that mission, including relevant language skills.
In many cases, and when circumstances of a mission demand, the EU seek observers who can demonstrate fluency in English and another language. An example of this was the Honduras elections in 2017 where the working and reporting language of the mission was Spanish (language of the mission) and English (reporting language). In the case of OSCE missions, the working language is normally English, but knowledge of the language of the country in question is also considered an advantage.
From the available information, the language breakdown of missions since 2010 are listed in the following table:
|
Working Language (s) of Election Observation Mission
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
|
English and French
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
French
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
|
|
French and Arabic
|
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
French and English
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Portuguese and English
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
1
|
|
Spanish and English
|
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
The Information Note for Applicants provided as part of the 2013 roster recruitment process set out the four criteria which included language Skills; experience of election observation; knowledge of human rights and / or governance issues; and experience of living in challenging environments.
For the language element, all applicants were required to set out their language proficiency in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic, which together with English are the official working languages of the United Nations. Applicants could also indicate their proficiency in other languages. Candidates were asked to indicate their levels of proficiency; what formal study had been undertaken by them; and, their usage of any of the five UN official and working languages other than English. In the assessment, up to 5 marks were awarded for fluency in each of the five specified languages.
It is important to note that the EU carries out spot checks on language proficiency among candidates nominated to take part in election observer missions prior to their final decision.
