News - Page 9

NORDEM Annual Report 2012 has been published. Hard copies are available upon request.

NORDEM has published the report "The Constitutional History and the 2013 Referendum of Zimbabwe" written by Kåre Vollan, an election expert deployed by NORDEM. Vollan has followed the electoral and constitutional processes in Zimbabwe since 2002, both through NORDEM and as an advisor to the Norwegian Embassy in Harare.

The Constitutional Referendum of Zimbabwe on 16 March 2013 marked the end of a lengthy process to pass a new constitution. The report provides an overview of the electoral and constitutional history of Zimbabwe after independence, with a more in depth description of the developments in the period from 2008 to the referendum. 

NORDEM has sent election observers to Zimbabwe since 2000, also as independent teams or experts when it has not been possible to participate in an international election observation mission. The author of this report, Kåre Vollan, has been central in NORDEM’s observations of elections in Zimbabwe.

On June 12 and 13, NORDEM conducted a crisis management and preparedness training for its staff in Oslo. The aim of the training was to enable NORDEM to better prepare for and respond to potential local and foreign emergencies in the framework of NORDEM’s international secondments.

The training was conducted by Heymdal, experts within international risk management, and was attended by the whole NORDEM secretariat team, senior management at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights and a senior representative from the Faculty of Law management.

Time and place: 11 June 2013 09:00 – 15:00, Stratos 11^th floor, Youngstorget, Oslo

The week of 15-19 April, NORDEM held meetings with partners, secondees and prospective partner organizations in New York.

NORDEM contributes with two long term observers and two short term observers to the EU Election Observation Mission to the Pakistan General Elections on 11 May 2013.

NORDEM is sending two short term observers to the EU's observation of the general elections in Paraguay held on 21 April 2013. One of the observers, Fatima Valdez Haugstveit, was interviewed by Norway's permanent delegation to the EU before her departure.

NORDEM sent two long term observers and four short term observers to the OSCE election observation mission to Armenia in January/February.

NORDEM sent observers to both the EU and the Carter Center for the general elections in Kenya on 4 March.

NORDEM secondee Jo Faafeng, Senior Judicial Officer in the OSCE Presence in Albania will present his work at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights on Monday 4 March 12:00-13:00.

NORDEM is now seeking the following categories of personnel to the roster:

The parliamentary election on 23 January was technically well organized but serious gaps in the election law call for further legal reform, stated the EU in its preliminary statement.

NORDEM signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) in November 2012.

Berit Bachen Dahle, former police investigator and sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) expert, has been deployed as a gender expert to the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

NORDEM is seeking a Cooordination Officer to the Stabilisation Support Unit of MONUSCO in Bunia in DR Congo. See the terms of reference below for further details. Qualified and interested candidates are asked to contact Lisa Kirkengen, k.l.kirkengen at nchr.uio.no (replace "at" with @), as soon as possible.

The Norwegian mission to the EU in Brussels recently interviewed staff at NORDEM and one of the Norwegian election observers who has participated in the EU's election observation missions.

The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights and the MFA recently signed a new agreement that aims at strengthening NORDEM. The agreement covers the period 2012-2014 and ensures 24 million NOK to the operation of NORDEM. The number of staff will be increased from five to seven and the competence within democratisation and institution building will be enhanced.

Read more about the agreement on the web pages of the NCHR and the MFA.

NORDEM has sent one long term observer to the EU's observation of the Constituent Assembly elections in Tunisia on 23 October. Two Norwegian short term observers will join the EU mission shortly before the election day.

News article in Norwegian

NORDEM's one week Basic Course in Democratisation and Human Rights Monitoring was successfully concluded on 9 September. 21 participants completed the course.

22 participants from delegations from Iraq, Puntland, Somaliland and Turkmenistan visited Norway in relation to the local elections in September 2011.

Applicants are sought for the position of Head of the Office in Yerevan. The OSCE Office in Yerevan comprises of 47 budgeted positions (Unified Budget 2011) and the Head of Mission, as Fund Manager of the OSCE, is responsible for the planning, implementation and reporting activities of the respective Fund budget and the management of the corresponding human, financial and material resources. The Head of Mission is required to possess extensive managerial experience.

Applicants are sought for the post of Deputy Chief, CLJAS (P-5) with the Criminal Law and Judicial Advisory Service in the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Duty station will be New York. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, 22 July 2011.

NORDEM has sent one long term and four short term observers to the Presidential Elections in Kazakhstan on 3 April. The observers are part of the OSCE's election observation mission.