CRPD/C/10/D/4/2011 Third-party intervention 5.1 On 23 June 2012, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability submitted a thirdparty intervention in support of the authors’ communication. On 19 September 2012, during its eighth session, the Committee decided to request the written consent of the authors with respect to the submission of this third-party intervention, based on rule 73, paragraph 2, of its rules of procedure. On 17 October 2012, the authors transmitted their formal consent to the Committee in this regard. 5.2 In its intervention, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (“the interveners”) noted that under article XXIII, paragraph 6, of the Fundamental Law of Hungary, a person loses his or her right to vote if a court finds that he or she lacks the capacity to vote. Such assessments only affect persons under guardianship, who are all persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities. Hungarian legislation thus permits the disenfranchisement of persons with disabilities on the basis of a perceived lack of capacity to vote arising from their disability status. The interveners stress that article 29 of the Convention provides for an unconditional right to vote for all persons with disabilities, and does not allow any implicit restrictions on the basis of real or perceived ability to vote, whether imposed by an overall ban on broad categories of disabled persons, bans on all persons with particular types of disabilities who are presumed to have limited voting capability, or through an individualized assessment of the voting capacity of specific individuals with disabilities.5 The interveners submit that article 29 of the Convention does not provide for any exception to the universal right to vote on the basis of the person’s disability. Rather, the Convention provides that no individuals with disabilities, including the most “profoundly disabled”, may be disenfranchised on the basis of their disability. 5.3 The interveners observe that the practice of most States worldwide is in stark contrast with the standard expressed above. According to a study from 2001, some 56 out of the 60 countries surveyed restricted the right to vote in some way on the basis of disability.6 A 2010 report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights gave similar results: only 7 of the 27 European Union member States did not restrict franchise on the basis of disability.7 The situation among other European States that are not members of the European Union is even more depressing. According to the interveners, the present case therefore raises issues which have implications for many other countries besides the State party. 5.4 The interveners stress that restricting the right to vote on the basis of disability constitutes direct discrimination, and is predicated on the unacceptable and empirically unfounded stereotype that all persons with disabilities are incapable. This is equally true for classifications that target specific subgroups of persons with disabilities, such as persons 5 See the Committee’s concluding observations on Tunisia, which recommend the “urgent adoption of legislative measures to ensure that persons with disabilities, including persons who are currently under guardianship or trusteeship, can exercise their right to vote” (CRPD/C/TUN/CO/1, para. 35). See also the Committee’s concluding observations on Spain, in which it expressed the concern that domestic legislation allowed for an individualized assessment of voting capacity, which in turn led to the disenfranchisement of persons with disabilities. The Committee therefore recommended that “all relevant legislation be reviewed to ensure that all persons with disabilities, regardless of their impairment, legal status or place of residence, have the right to vote and participate in public life on an equal basis with others” (CRPD/C/ESP/CO/1, para. 48). 6 André Blais, Louis Massicotte and Antoine Yoshinaka, “Deciding who has the right to vote: a comparative analysis of election laws”, Electoral Studies, vol. 20. No. 1 (March 2001), p. 41. 7 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, “The rights of people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities to take part in politics”, November 2010. Available from http://fra.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources (accessed 10 October 2013). 6