Mr. Pat Clarke:

I thank the Chair. I am speaking on behalf of the European Disability Forum, EDF, as its vice president and the executive committee member responsible for our ongoing campaign on the right of persons with disabilities to vote and stand for elections. The right to vote and stand for election are fundamental rights. The participation of persons with disabilities in society cannot be full and effective without properly including them in political life as any other EU citizen.

The rights to vote and stand for election of persons with disabilities are guaranteed under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified by the European Union and, since 2018, by all its member states. Unfortunately, they are not yet a reality for all EU citizens with disabilities.

Every five years, the European Union is proud of carrying out one of the largest democratic exercise in the world. We elect 705 Members of the European Parliament who represent the diversity of our Union. However, neither of these two statements are entirely true.

Persons with disabilities still experience legal and practical barriers to their political rights enshrined in Article 29 of the UNCRPD. This is why the EDF carried out an in-depth analysis on the current state of play regarding these rights across all EU member states. The results of this research are presented in the sixth EDF human rights report on political participation. I have left a number of copies with the committee secretariat for future reference.

Despite the fact that there were several positive developments which happened in a number of EU member states that reformed their electoral laws and legal capacity regimes to allow persons with disabilities formerly deprived of their political rights to finally vote, it is estimated that approximately 400,000 persons with disabilities did not have the right to vote in the last European elections. Those developments are welcome and much needed. However, we also see that they are not enough. To be able to vote and stand as candidates, people with disabilities need accessibility, reasonable accommodation to vote independently and in secret, as well as free choice of assistance. Without those, they cannot exercise their political rights, whether it is in local elections, or in elections to the European Parliament.

According to our findings, currently there are 14 member states in which a person under total or partial guardianship can be deprived of their right to vote. Among these, seven countries automatically remove any political right when a person loses his or her legal capacity.

When it comes to accessibility and specific arrangements to facilitate the right to vote independently and in secret, we need to acknowledge the great variety of voting systems across countries. We must acknowledge that a one-fits-all solution cannot be applied. Nevertheless, in our human rights report, we highlight good practices and general recommendations that can be followed by all governments.

Concerning accessibility, 18 countries have direct or indirect legislation regarding the polling stations. However, no country has legal accessibility requirements when it comes to the ballot papers, electronic voting machines or political party campaigns. To overcome the accessibility barriers, most countries, 23 to be precise, have put in place alternative and advance means of voting which can be convenient for persons with disabilities. These include, for example, mobile ballot boxes, early voting, postal voting, Internet voting or the possibility of choosing or changing polling stations, to name but a few. Many countries also provide technical aids and support in order that persons with disabilities can vote independently such as, for example, magnifying glasses, tactile stencils, large print, Braille guides and sign language support. Unfortunately, there are still two countries which do not allow persons with disabilities to freely choose assistance to vote thus contradicting a specific obligation in Article 29 of the UNCRPD. Overall, although there is progress in this field, we are still far from ensuring equal participation in political life. We highlighted in our report the cases which brought substantial change in several EU countries, including Ireland and I strongly recommend members take a look at the findings and recommendations of this report.

As for the recommendations, we continue to insist on the following: countries must guarantee the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of legal capacity status; countries must maximise accessibility to the proceedings, facilities and materials of the elections and they must provide reasonable accommodation in order that persons with disabilities can vote independently and in secret. Moreover, all these measures should be appropriate for each country's voting system; all countries must ensure the free choice of assistance; and, most importantly, public authorities should put forward these measures in co-operation with disabled persons' organisations, DPOs, to assess and define how to solve the legal and practical barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from participating in elections, both as voters and candidates.

The European disability movement will continue working to realise the right to vote and the right to stand as a candidate for persons with disabilities, in all corners of Europe and at all political levels. This report aims to shed light on the progress made to date, and the challenges we still have ahead. With this report we also support a new electoral law proposed by the European Parliament, which we expect all member states, including Ireland, to agree on.

I have left other information here that is available to the committee in terms of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, office and democratic institutions and human rights. There is other information available at an international level from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, which is based in Washington. The foundation has a lot of very good guidelines on this topic and I will pass on all the contact points to the committee.