MEPs launch a written declaration on the right to vote

3 members of the European Parliament did an important document. With this document, they want to get the European Parliament to dicuss about the right of people with disabilities to vote. They want to see more people with disabilities having access to elections.

On 14 November, the members of the European Parliament Andrew Duff, Mairead McGuinness and Ádám Kósa, launched a written declaration on the right of people with disabilities to vote. Their initiative is aiming to stir a constructive debate on the issue of accessible elections, recognising that the right to vote is a fundamental right for everyone as well as the condition for active citizenship.

The declaration is based on the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Treaty of the European Union. Recognising that “in a majority of EU states persons with intellectual disabilities are or may be excluded from the right to vote or be elected”, the declaration strongly denounces the way in which people with disabilities are still generally deprived from their right to vote in elections.

This initiative also challenges the Venice Commission, which still has not revised its interpretative declaration allowing for the deprivation of the right to vote based on the individual court decision on the "lack of proper judgement."

Through their declaration, the three MEPs call on all the Member States to remove all legal limitations to the right of people with disabilities to exercise their fundamental rights. Up until now, the declaration has been signed by 42 other members of the Parliament. If it is signed by a majority of the MEPs, it is forwarded to the President, who announces it in the plenary. Unless the declaration is signed by at least half of the MEPs in a period of 3 months, it will expire.

Inclusion Europe welcomed this initiative in its recent roundtable meeting on legal capacity. To find more information about this meeting, click here.

To read the whole declaration of the European Parliament, you can follow this link.