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CRPD/C/10/D/4/2011 recommendations of the Committee. The State party is also requested to publish the Committee’s Views, to have them translated into the official language of the State party, and circulate them widely, in accessible formats, in order to reach all sectors of the population. [Adopted in Arabic, English, French and Spanish, the English text being the original version. Subsequently to be issued also in Chinese and Russian as part of the Committee’s biannual report to the General Assembly.] 14

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Bujdoso v. Hungary

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether Hungary's automatic disenfranchisement of persons with disabilities placed under guardianship—without individualized assessment of their capacity to vote and based solely on their disability status—violates articles 2, 12, and 29 of the CRPD.

Alleged Acts: Authors—Zsolt Bujdosó, Jánosné Ildikó Márkus, Viktória Márton, Sándor Mészáros, Gergely Polk, and János Szabó—were Hungarian citizens with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities who had been placed under partial or full guardianship by Hungarian courts. Under article 70(5) of the Hungarian Constitution (as applicable at the time), persons placed under total or partial guardianship were automatically deprived of the right to vote. Consequently, the authors' names were automatically removed from the electoral register without any individualized judicial inquiry into whether they understood the nature or effect of voting. They were thus prevented from voting in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary and municipal elections.

Procedural history: The communication was submitted to the CRPD Committee in 2011 under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee found the communication admissible and considered it on the merits at its 10th session in Geneva, adopting its Views on September 9, 2013.

Summary: The Bujdóso v. Hungary case concerns the right of persons with intellectual disabilities to vote in national and local elections, and whether Hungary’s legal framework discriminates against them.

Conclusion: Hungary violated the CRPD by maintaining a legal framework that automatically disenfranchised the authors; Hungary was required to repeal Article 23 of the Fundamental Law; and Hungary must provide authors with an effective remedy.

Legal Issue(s)

Accessibility
Voters' Rights

Applicable Law(s): Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Region: Europe and Eurasia

Country: Hungary

Language of Decision

English

Court: Human Rights Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: Oct 16, 2013

Geolocation

Latitude: 46.2041

Longitude: 6.144

: Geolocation

Link: https://juris.ohchr.org/casedetails/1988/en-US

Primary Documents

Bujdoso v. Hungary.pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Bujdoso v. Hungary

Primary Documents

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