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CRPD/C/10/D/4/2011 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Distr.: General 16 October 2013 Original: English Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Communication No. 4/2011 Views adopted by the Committee at its tenth session (2–13 September 2013) GE.13-47578 Submitted by: Zsolt Bujdosó, Jánosné Ildikó Márkus, Viktória Márton, Sándor Mészáros, Gergely Polk and János Szabó (represented by counsel, János Fiala, Disability Rights Center) Alleged victims: The authors State party: Hungary Date of communication: 14 September 2011 (initial submission) Document references: Special Rapporteur’s rule 70 decision, transmitted to the State party on 1 November 2011 (not issued in document form) Date of adoption of Views: 9 September 2013 Subject matter: Failure by the State party to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability, and to respect the obligation to guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights, including the right to vote, on an equal basis with other citizens Substantive issues: Equal and effective legal protection against discrimination on the basis of disability; participation in political and public life Procedural issues: None Articles of the Convention: Articles 12 and 29 Articles of the Optional Protocol: None

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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

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