CAAMAÑO VALLE v. SPAIN JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION
Since 2010, however, a number of things have changed. The CRPD,
which had already entered into force in 2008, has been given a concrete
content by the CRPD Committee. While some of the CRPD Committee’s
interpretations may not be directly transposable to the Convention, others
are. The CRPD Committee’s interpretation of the right to vote of persons
with disabilities is one such relevant analysis.
The majority prefer not to follow the CRPD Committee’s views. They
opt for a cautious approach. As long as there is no consensus among the
States Parties to the Convention to adapt their laws to the CRPD as
interpreted by the CRPD Committee, they do not consider it the Court’s task
to read into Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 an obligation for the States to do so.
18. The CRPD is based on the model of “inclusive equality”, implying
among other things “the full recognition of humanity through inclusion in
society” (CRPD Committee, General comment No. 6 (2018) on equality and
non-discrimination, § 11, CRPD/C/GC/6).
In a recent publication, which for obvious reasons I read with more than
usual interest, Jenny Goldschmidt explains that inclusion also means
“removing the barriers” that prevent people from enjoying their rights (see
J. Goldschmidt, “The Implementation of the CRPD in the ECHR:
Challenges and Opportunities”, in K. Lemmens, St. Parmentier and
L. Reyntjens (eds.), Human Rights with a Human Touch. Liber Amicorum
Paul Lemmens, Intersentia, Cambridge, 2020, (611), at 613). She focuses on
the relevance of the CRPD, with its emphasis on inclusion, for the
interpretation and application of the Convention (ibid., 614). She concludes
her research as follows: “The CRPD challenges the [Court] to reconsider its
own jurisprudence, as can be required to incorporate differences instead of
reaffirming inequality by allowing exceptions or accommodations, which
leave the excluding normative frames untouched. The progressive
realisation of the rights of the [Convention] demands a more fundamental
re-thinking of the cases and laws that are considered and an unveiling of the
neutrality of the underlying perspectives. In some cases, the [Court] seems
aware of this, but ... it seems often reluctant to take a more substantive
approach” (ibid., 631).
To reconsider the case-law is sometimes necessary. The present case
evidently offered an opportunity to do so. Article 12 § 2 of the CRPD
obliges the States Parties to the CRPD to recognise the legal capacity of all
persons with disabilities, on an equal basis with others. While the States
Parties to Protocol No. 1 enjoy a certain margin of appreciation in the
sphere of limitations of the right to vote, the Court has already accepted that
that margin is relatively narrow when the restriction applies to the mentally
disabled (see paragraph 55 of the judgment, referring to Alajos Kiss, cited
above, § 42). Given the obligations imposed on the States by Article 12 of
the CRPD, as clarified by the CRPD Committee, the Court should have
35