EPDE board member Zosia Lutkiewicz delivered an intervention at the 2025 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference highlighting the climate of repression and narrowing spaces for election observers and ways to respond.

Citizen election observers are often the first to notice when democracy begins to close. When civic space narrows, it shows first in the polling station, in laws that limit who may observe, in accreditations delayed until it no longer matters, or in the late invitation or non-invitation of OSCE ODIHR itself.

The new GNDEM report on the state of global observer rights confirms what many of us in this room have witnessed firsthand. Across the OSCE region and beyond, observer rights are being deliberately eroded. Legal guarantees exist only on paper, but in practice we see politicized accreditation, digital surveillance, smear campaigns, and in the worst cases, imprisonment.

Today, our colleagues, Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova, Anar Mammadli, and Grigory Melkonyants, together face or serve over 45 years in prison for defending electoral transparency. Their courage reminds us that observation is not a courtesy extended by the state. It is an exercise of the freedoms of association, expression, and participation that are at the heart of the Helsinki commitments.

To respond, we all must first ensure that participating states guarantee observers access and protection in law and in practice, second ensure that the OSCE and its institutions speak with one voice when observer rights are restricted, treating such violations as indicators of democratic regression. And third: Everyone, civil society, media, and international partners should work together to sustain solidarity, visibility, and resources for those who still observe, often at great personal risk. Because when observers are silenced, democracy loses its witnesses.

I would like to warmly invite everybody to continue these discussions on safeguarding space for election monitoring at our side event, which is co-hosted by the EPDE and OSCE/ODIHR.