3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "Persons with disabilities should not be considered a homogeneous group. Persons with various types of disabilities have different needs and may require different forms of assistance and support."
- "DPOs [disabled persons organizations] should be closely consulted and actively involved in the development and implementation of legislation and policies."
- "It is not acceptable to remove and/or limit the right to vote or to stand as a candidate on the basis of any type of disability, including intellectual or psychosocial disabilities."
- "Supported decision-making means that a person can receive the necessary assistance to adopt certain decisions in life, including when exercising the right to vote. Such mechanisms should replace the substituted decision-making ones, providing persons with disabilities with the necessary support to exercise their electoral and political rights without undue limitation."
- "Key electoral information should be made available in multiple, accessible formats, which may include Braille, large print, audio, easy-to-understand versions and sign language. This includes information about how to participate in an election, how to lodge complaints and appeals, results and updates from the election administration."
- "The CRPD Committee has consequently been very clear that the treaty does not permit the removal of legal capacity based on mental or intellectual disability. It is clear that neither general nor individualized court decisions are acceptable bases for the removal of suffrage rights. In 2011, in Bujdosó and five others v. Hungary, the Committee heard a case in which persons with intellectual disability were placed under partial or full guardianship and their names automatically removed from the electoral register. The Committee found that the “exclusion of the right to vote on the basis of a perceived, or actual psychosocial or intellectual disability, including a restriction pursuant to an individualized assessment, constitutes discrimination on the basis of disability”."
- "As long as goods, products and services are open or provided to the public, they must be accessible to all, regardless of whether they are owned and/or provided by a public authority or a private enterprise. Persons with disabilities should have equal access to all goods, products and services that are open or provided to the public in a manner that ensures their effective and equal access and respects their dignity."
- "The strict application of universal design to all new goods, products, facilities, technologies and services should ensure full, equal and unrestricted access for all potential consumers, including persons with disabilities, in a way that takes full account of their inherent dignity and diversity."
- "Accessibility is related to groups, whereas reasonable accommodation is related to individuals. This means that the duty to provide accessibility is an ex ante duty. States parties therefore have the duty to provide accessibility before receiving an individual request to enter or use a place or service. (...) The obligation to implement accessibility is unconditional, i.e. the entity obliged to provide accessibility may not excuse the omission to do so by referring to the burden of providing access for persons with disabilities. "
- "The duty to provide reasonable accommodation is an ex nunc duty, which means that it is enforceable from the moment an individual with an impairment needs it in a given situation, for example, workplace or school, in order to enjoy her or his rights on an equal basis in a particular context. Here, accessibility standards can be an indicator, but may not be taken as prescriptive. Reasonable accommodation can be used as a means of ensuring accessibility for an individual with a disability in a particular situation. Reasonable accommodation seeks to achieve individual justice in the sense that non-discrimination or equality is assured, taking the dignity, autonomy and choices of the individual into account."
- "When defining accessibility standards, States parties have to take into account the diversity of persons with disabilities and ensure that accessibility is provided to persons of any gender and of all ages and types of disability."
- "They solemnly declare that among those elements of justice which are essential to the full expression of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all human beings are the following: (5.4) a clear separation between the State and political parties; in particular, political parties will not be merged with the State."
- "The legal framework must establish effective mechanisms to prevent public officials from taking unfair advantage of their positions in order to influence the outcome of elections. Provisions regarding permissible uses of state resources should clearly apply to both incumbent and opposition political forces, and should not favor or discriminate against any party or candidate."
- "The fact that incumbents and elected representatives, in particular, have access to and control over public sector staff, finances, allocations and public facilities, is crucial during electoral campaigns, because it may confer an advantage over the competitors in elections. Administrative resources can also be used to acquire prestige or public awareness, to enhance the perception of incumbents, elected representatives and candidates by the public, which may lead to political endorsement or other forms of support."
- "The regulation of misuse of administrative resources in the domestic legal framework can be explicit or implicit. On the one hand, laws can explicitly provide for a general prohibition of the misuse of administrative resources. (…) Also, implicit provisions aiming at countering instances of misuse of administrative resources can be included in domestic legislation, such as through the establishment of guarantees (e.g. requiring a level playing field for all candidates; or by generally sanctioning breaches of official duties by electoral commissions) which are relevant safeguards against any abuse. Of course, explicit and implicit regulation may occur cumulatively."
- "Independent monitoring and audit institutions to detect instances of misuse ex officio are of further relevance, especially in the field of campaign and political party financing and media access."
- "The legal framework should provide for a general prohibition of the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes. The prohibition has to be established in a clear and predictable manner. "
- "The possibility to bring complaints about the misuse of administrative resources to an independent and impartial tribunal – or equivalent judicial body – or to apply to an authorised law-enforcement body should be central in ensuring the appropriate use and to prevent the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes."
- "In order to ensure neutrality of the civil service during electoral processes and consequently to avoid any risk of conflict of interest, the legal framework should provide for a clear separation between the exercise of politically sensitive public positions, in particular senior management positions, and candidacy. In this respect, the legal framework should provide for a range of adequate and proportionate rules. Such rules may include a clear instruction on how and when campaigning in a personal capacity may be conducted, suspension from office or resignation of certain public authorities running for elections."
- "The legal framework should provide for equitable access for all political parties and candidates to administrative resources during electoral processes, to public funding of political parties and campaigns, and to publicly-owned media. This also applies to public buildings and facilities used for campaigning. "
- "The ordinary work of government must continue during an election period. However, in order to prevent the misuse of administrative resources to imbalance the level playing field during electoral competitions, the legal framework should state that no major announcements linked to or aimed at creating a favourable perception towards a given party or candidate should occur during campaigns. This does not include announcements that are necessary due to unforeseen circumstances, such as economic and/or political developments in the country or in the region, e.g. following a natural disaster or emergencies of any kind that demand immediate and urgent action that cannot be delayed."
- "The legal framework should stipulate that there should be no non-essential appointments to public bodies during the electoral campaign."
- "The legal framework should establish clear, predictable and proportionate sanctions for infringements of the prohibition of the misuse of administrative resources, from administrative fines to the ultimate consequence of cancelling election results where irregularities may have affected the outcome. Civil servants who misuse administrative resources during electoral processes should be subject to sanction, including criminal and disciplinary sanctions, up to the dismissal from office."
- "The Congress recommends that legal provisions at national level allow IDPs to exercise their right to vote by facilitating the procedures for changing residence and registration on voters’ lists."
- "The enfranchisement of foreigners, at least in the local context, is a major provision of the Council of Europe Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at the Local Level. The Convention directly obliges states to “grant the right to vote and to stand for election in local authority elections” to foreign residents provided that they lawfully and habitually reside in the respective country for at least 5 years preceding the elections – giving also the possibility to shorten such a period of residency. "
- "While residency requirements are in principle a permissible restriction to this right, they must be reasonable. The criterion of reasonableness is arguably not complied with, when residence requirements in domestic laws prevent the political participation of IDPs, especially after forcible displacement."
- "In order to avoid disenfranchisement and to facilitate the right to return, IDPs may be allowed to vote in their former places of residence, provided that security, legality and transparency of elections can be assured in accordance with international standards and best practices."
- "In case IDPs are deprived of their political rights, they must be granted access to an effective system of contestation, including complaint and appeal procedures, in the respect of relevant fair trial standards."
- "Along similar lines, standards of the Council of Europe require member states to “grant electoral rights to all their citizens (nationals), without imposing residency requirements”, “to take appropriate legal and practical measures to enable internally displaced persons to effectively exercise their right to vote in national, regional or local elections and to ensure that this right is not infringed by obstacles of a practical nature” and “ to ensure that IDPs can exercise their right to participate in public affairs at all levels, including their right to vote or stand for election, which may require special measures such as IDP voter registration drives, or absentee ballots”."
- "In similar vein, if the procedure for registering as an external elector has to be carried out at an embassy or consulate, the extent and geographical distribution of the country’s network of diplomatic missions overseas and the distance between the diplomatic missions and the regions or zones where the potential electorate resides and/or works could have a negative influence on the coverage of the mechanism for external voting."
- "At each stage of the external electoral process, emphasis must be placed on implementing procedures and processes that are not only faithful to the legislation but also as close as possible to those in place for in-country voters. All electors must have access to a similar registration and polling process, no matter where they are located."
- "There is thus no ‘best procedure’ for external voting. Much will depend on the context, such as the infrastructure of those foreign countries where external voting is to be held. The decision on suitability will depend on the costs and practical aspects of the different procedures for external voting (...)."
- "Entitlement to cast an external vote is usually linked to the general entitlement to vote that applies to all eligible electors in a country. However, there are sometimes extra requirements imposed on external electors, such as a minimum period of previous residence or an intention to return to the country. In some cases only limited groups of external electors may be eligible to vote, such as diplomats, other public officials and members of the armed forces, and their families."
- "Particularly where the right to vote is extended to all citizens who are resident abroad, regardless of intention to return, it may be desirable to have stricter eligibility rules for candidates. This would usually take the form of a residence requirement."
- "In most cases it would be appropriate to apply the same level of authentication requirements to registration as an external elector as apply to the normal electoral registration process."
- "The security and control of registration and voting materials require special attention for external voting. Security is as essential externally as it is internally but there is the added challenge of securing sensitive materials during transport to and from several countries."
- "In most cases the duties and responsibilities of countries hosting foreign electoral activity on their soil are minimal, being confined to the role of facilitator rather than that of organizer or implementer. While host countries can assist in the external voting process, their role should not threaten the secrecy of the ballot or the neutrality or transparency of the programme. It is critical that external voting programmes be conducted without political or government influence or interference."
- "One form of gender-targeted public funding that mainly focuses on the broader aim of improving the gender balance in politics is the earmarking of parts of public funding. Political parties can for example be required to use a certain percentage of the public funds they are provided for outreach activities linked to gender equality, in order to increase the role of women in political parties or to develop a gender action plan."
- "A common aim of gender-related public funding is to incentivize political parties to nominate more female candidates by using financial rewards to connect the amount of public funding provided to the level of gender equality among its candidates, regardless of how the parties use these additional funds."
- "Many forms of gender-targeted public funding, however, do not incentivize parties to nominate women in competitive electoral areas. (...) Some countries have sought to overcome this problem by relating the amount of public funding provided to the number of female candidates elected by each political party."
- "The aim of gender-targeted public funding may be to reduce the financial burden for female candidates by ensuring that they receive more money to allow them to compete more effectively in elections, given the gender prejudices within the electorate."
- "The core idea behind transparency, as that term is used in this paper, is that State actors – including actors which are funded or controlled by the State, even if they formally operate at arms length to the three branches of government – should act in an open manner. This includes being transparent about how they operate, about the rules that govern them, about their activities and expenditures, about their operations and about the decisions they take, among other things."
- "The core idea behind accountability is that State actors need to be able to be held responsible for their decisions and actions. Accountability is central to democratic governance and is implicit in the right to political participation, which rests, among other things, on the idea that the government is answerable to the people."
- "Accountability has two dimensions: answerability and enforcement. State bodies and representatives have an obligation to inform citizens about their actions and explain the rationale for their decisions (answerability). At the same time, citizens should have opportunities to hold these bodies and officials accountable for their actions (enforcement)."
- "Open meetings are the logical corollary of providing access to recorded or documentary information. (…) Better practice is to require meetings of governing bodies to be open, albeit subject to closure where this is justified. To achieve this, it is important to define the scope of both governing bodies – normally public decisionmaking bodies such as elected bodies, judicial bodies, planning and zoning boards, educational boards and so on – and meetings – which refers to formal or official meetings convened to conduct public business."
- "Unless the right to lodge requests for information is anchored in clear procedural rules, it is unlikely to be effective. These rules need to be simple, so that ordinary people can easily understand them (and hence be able to make requests), but they also need to be reasonably comprehensive, so as not to provide reluctant officials with loopholes to avoid responding to requests."
- "Against this background, the responsibility of social media platforms within the framework of current political / campaign finance regimes to ensure transparency and accountability of ad placement, expenditure and attribution in order to better inform citizens of the context in which electoral choices are being made, gains critical importance."
- "Two essential elements of the internet are its instantaneity and its interactivity, which significantly affect the time frame established for the realisation of the electoral campaign. It would be interesting to reconsider the concept of soliciting votes, a process which is divided between periods of pre-campaign (or permanent campaign) and campaign. Similarly, the expediency of distinguishing between financing of campaigns and financing of political parties appears questionable."
- "It is also necessary to address the issue of the ban of political campaigns during the day before the election, whose nature clashes with that of the internet as an asynchronous medium, in which content is permanent and accessible to everyone at all times, without political parties needing to take any action whatsoever: political events, messages, videos, propaganda, etc. from the entire campaign are available to the citizen, including the day before the election."
- "The principles of freedom of expression implying a robust public debate must be translated into the digital environment, in particular during electoral periods."