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CAAMAÑO VALLE v. SPAIN JUDGMENT vote in the 2019 European Parliament elections? Developments in the right to vote of people deprived of legal capacity in EU Member States”). It seems that, apart from Spain (2018), also France (2019) and Germany (2019) granted the right to vote to persons with mental disabilities. Denmark (2016 and 2018) eased the restrictions on the right to vote for persons with mental disabilities, and Belgium (2018) moved from a system of automatic disenfranchisement to one of disenfranchisement upon an individual assessment by a judge. The Supreme Court of Slovakia (2017) struck down legal provisions tying the right to vote to legal capacity. THE LAW I. ON THE REQUEST FOR THE APPLICATION TO BE STRUCK OUT OF THE LIST 29. The Government argued that the application should be struck out, in accordance with the provisions of Article 37 § (1) (a) and (b) of the Convention, since the applicant’s daughter had been legally recognised as having the right to vote and the judicial decisions that had given rise to that procedure had been automatically annulled. The Government argued in particular that Institutional Law 2/2018 of 5 December 2018 had modified the LOREG, eliminating the provisions of the LOREG relating to the possibility of depriving disabled people of the right to vote and guaranteeing the right to vote to persons with a disability. 30. The Court notes that for a certain period of time the applicant’s daughter was not permitted to vote. Various elections were held in Spain and in Europe between 2014 and 2018 (namely, elections to the European Parliament in May 2014, Spanish general elections in 2015 and 2016). In none of these elections was the applicant’s daughter, despite being of legal age, able to exercise her right to vote. 31. Therefore, the application does not fall under Article 37 § 1; it is true that the relevant legislation was amended in 2018 and that since then, all disabled persons have been allowed to vote, but the fact remains that the applicant’s daughter was not able to vote in several elections held after she had reached her majority until the amendment of the law in 2018. 32. The Court considers in any event that respect for human rights, as defined by the Convention and the Protocols thereto, requires it to continue the examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine). II. ON THE APPLICANT’S STANDING TO BRING THE PRESENT APPLICATION 33. The Court notes that the application was brought by Ms Maria del Mar Caamaño Valle in her own name, acting on behalf of her daughter, M. 13

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Caamaño Valle v. Spain

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the rescission of voting rights for disabled person under guardianship based on individualized assessment is legal under Article 3, Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Alleged Acts: Applicant, Ms. Caamaño Valle, was the mother of a young woman with an intellectual disability. Around her daughter's 18th birthday, the mother requested that her daughter be placed under her legal guardianship (partial guardianship under Spanish law), but explicitly asked that the daughter not be deprived of her right to vote. Spanish courts placed the daughter under guardianship but also removed her voting rights, finding that she was "highly influenceable and not aware of the consequences of any vote that she might cast." The Spanish courts determined that the daughter lacked sufficient mental capacity to make a free and informed electoral choice, and that allowing her to vote would not serve the purpose of the democratic process.

Procedural history: Mother filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that the disenfranchisement violated her daughter's right to vote under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Summary: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in Caamaño Valle v. Spain that Spain did not violate the applicant’s rights under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (right to vote) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) in the case of her daughter, M., who has an intellectual disability.

Conclusion: Spain's disenfranchisement of the applicant's daughter did not violate the European Convention. The judgment upheld the removal of voting rights for a person with an intellectual disability where domestic courts had conducted an individualized assessment and found that the person was incapable of understanding the electoral process and susceptible to undue influence.

Legal Issue(s)

Accessibility

Applicable Law(s): Article 3, Protocol No. 1, and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Region: Europe and Eurasia

Country: Spain

Language of Decision

English

Court: Human Rights Court

Election Type: Parliamentary

Date of decision: Aug 11, 2021

Geolocation

Latitude: 48.5964

Longitude: 7.7742

: Geolocation

Link: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-210089%22]}

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CASE OF CAAMAÑO VALLE v. SPAIN.pdf
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Caamaño Valle v. Spain

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