SITAROPOULOS AND GIAKOUMOPOULOS v. GREECE JUDGMENT 11 guarantees. It referred in that regard to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Committee: “93. ... Like the European Court and this Commission, the UN Human Rights Committee has recognized that the rights protected under Article 25 of the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] are not absolute, but that any conditions that apply to the right to political participation protected by Article 25 should be based on ‘objective and reasonable criteria’. The Committee has also found that in light of the fundamental principle of proportionality, greater restrictions on political rights require a specific justification. ...” 5. Human rights protection system based on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 30. Article 13 § 1 of this Charter is worded as follows: “Every citizen shall have the right to participate freely in the government of his country, either directly or through freely chosen representatives in accordance with the provisions of the law.” 31. Taking the view that this provision was similar in substance to Article 25 of the International Covenant, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights interpreted Article 13 of the Charter in the light of the Human Rights Committee’s General Comment on Article 25. It therefore held that any conditions applicable to the exercise of Article 25 rights should be based on objective and reasonable criteria established by law (see Purohit and Moore v. The Gambia, Communication no. 241/2001, § 76). C. Comparative law 32. According to the comparative-law materials available to the Court on the legislation of member States of the Council of Europe concerning the right to vote from abroad, the majority of the countries concerned authorise and have implemented procedures to allow their nationals resident abroad to vote in parliamentary elections. However, the situation varies greatly and the different scenarios do not lend themselves to classification into neat categories. A distinction can nevertheless be made between two broad categories: those member States which permit their citizens to vote from abroad, on the basis of a variety of arrangements; and those which, as a general rule, do not. Lastly, most of the member States which allow voting from abroad lay down administrative procedures for the registration of expatriates on the electoral roll.