CAAMAÑO VALLE v. SPAIN JUDGMENT neither on the requirement of a higher cognitive or intellectual capacity nor on M.’s lack of knowledge regarding her voting options (that is to say her choice of candidate or party) nor on any hypothetical irrationality in respect of such choices, but on the strict and objective establishment of her lack of capacity in respect of political affairs and electoral matters. The court’s medical expert and the First-Instance Judge had ascertained the notable – and at that time insuperable – deficiencies of M. (without, in accordance with section 761 of the Civil Procedural Law, prejudging any possible subsequent change in her capacity) in respect of her exercising an electoral choice. The First-Instance Judge acknowledged that depriving a person of her voting rights could not be an automatic consequence of a judicial declaration of legal incapacity and that decisions dealing with such situations had therefore to be extensively reasoned. He noted that the task at hand was not that of examining the knowledge of the applicant’s daughter about a specific political system, but to assess the circumstances of the case. The restriction of her right to vote was not justified by the fact that she hardly knew anything about the Spanish political system, but because she was highly influenceable and not aware of the consequences of any vote that she might cast. The First-Instance Judge emphasised in his judgment that such decisions were always subject to judicial review. 9. In October 2014, the applicant lodged an appeal with the Regional Court (Audiencia Provincial) of A Coruña. She asked the court to expressly recognise her daughter’s right to vote, submitting that under Articles 12 and 29 of the CRPD, the right to vote of persons with disabilities was recognised and that States had to provide them with the support necessary for the full exercise of that right to be guaranteed. 10. On 11 March 2015, the Regional Court of A Coruña dismissed the applicant’s appeal. The Regional Court considered that a decision to deprive a person of his or her right to vote was legal and compatible with the CRPD, provided that that person’s capacity to exercise the right to vote had been subjected to individual review by a judicial body; it noted that the firstinstance judgment had been sufficiently reasoned. The Regional Court emphasised that the intellectual ability of the applicant’s daughter was equivalent to that of child aged between six and eight. 11. In April 2015, the applicant lodged an appeal on points of law with the Supreme Court. She argued that all citizens had the right to vote under Article 23 of the Spanish Constitution (taken in conjunction with Article 10 § 2 thereof, which provided that fundamental rights recognised under the Constitution should be interpreted in accordance with the international conventions ratified by Spain). Moreover, she considered it to be contrary to the principle of non-discrimination that disabled people were prevented from exercising the fundamental right to vote. 12. On 17 March 2016, the Supreme Court dismissed the applicant’s appeal, upholding the decision of the Regional Court and ruling that the 3

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