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CAAMAÑO VALLE v. SPAIN JUDGMENT situation as the applicant automatically benefitted from the provisions of the new law. (c) The third party’s submissions 46. The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (“the Commissioner”) considered that developments within the UN system and the Council of Europe demonstrated a clear evolution in terms of the clarification of international obligations and that there was a consensus among the Contracting States within the context of commonly agreed international standards to the effect that the withdrawal of political rights on the basis of a disability (including cognitive impairment) and mental health status was unacceptable, even when it stemmed from a judicial decision. 47. In the opinion of the Commissioner, when a large category of persons – such as the nearly 100,000 persons in Spain with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities – was excluded from the electoral process, not only were they deprived of any possibility of influencing the political process and the chance of shaping the policies and measures that directly affected their lives, but society as a whole was deprived of a legislature that reflected its full diversity. Therefore, such measures certainly interfered with the free expression of the opinion of the people in the sense of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1. They also perpetrated age-old stigmas against persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities; such stigmas were damaging to the whole of society. Voting was also an important symbol of empowerment and inclusion and could affect the motivation of persons with disabilities to participate in public life and contribute to the societies in which they lived. 48. In conclusion, the Commissioner was of the opinion that Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention should be interpreted in the light of Article 29 of the CRPD and other international standards that provided that the right to vote of persons with disabilities should be upheld without exception. The Commissioner furthermore asserted that the practice of depriving persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities of their right to vote on the basis of a judicial decision could not be considered to be compatible with a legitimate aim in a modern democracy and amounted to discrimination; interfering with the ability of the persons concerned to freely express their opinions had serious negative effects on those persons, on society and on democracy. Accordingly, States should be reminded of their positive obligations to ensure that persons with disabilities (including intellectual and psychosocial disabilities) could effectively exercise their right to vote; they could realise those obligations by undertaking general measures securing the accessibility of electoral procedures, reasonable accommodation, and the provision of individual support where necessary. 17

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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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