international human rights instruments. Political parties play an important role in fostering political participation and democratic life. They are in a very dominant position in relation to their members and the voters. If they were immune from judicial oversight of the constitutionality and legality of their actions and decisions this could nullify the exercise of electoral rights, especially in light of the monopoly or quasi-monopoly that parties have in many countries over the nomination of candidates to elective office. This is part of a general trend to protect human rights in relation to powerful private persons (e.g. through the doctrine related to the protection of human rights in private spheres). 444. In several countries constitutional and/or statutory provisions explicitly or implicitly state that the courts (regular, constitutional, administrative or electoral) should hear challenges to the actions of political parties related to their internal democracy or alleged violations of the electoral rights of their members. This should be done either directly, by a challenge to an internal party action, or indirectly by challenging the decision of the EMB that validates or confers efficacy on the action of the party concerned. 445. In general, the challenge faced by any body of constitutional or statutory law that seeks to regulate the internal democracy of political parties, and by any judicial body that has jurisdiction to guarantee it, is to strike a balance between two apparently conflicting principles or values. These are the right of members to democratic participation in determining the position of the party, on the one hand, and the right of political parties to organize themselves freely as part of the fundamental electoral right to association, on the other. The latter requires that a sphere be preserved in the internal organization and functioning of political parties that is free from interference by organs of the state. However, it may be argued that, unlike other types of association, in the case of political parties the right to self-organization is limited by the right of its members to democratic participation in the party’s organization and functioning. Oversight of political parties’ charters or internal statutes 446. Several constitutional and/or statutory provisions provide for certain general bases and guidelines, or democratic requirements, to which political parties should adhere. At the same time, however, they delegate the power to establish the rules on their structure and internal democratic functioning to parties’ own internal organs in the exercise of their organizational freedom. Such provisions generally include the obligation for parties to register their internal statutes as well as all amendments made to them with the competent authority (possibly the EMB), at which point this authority generally reviews them to ensure that they are in line with constitutional and statutory requirements. 152