1357 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "Reasonable restrictions on persons wishing to become candidates may include a residency requirement in the country for a certain period of time, minimum support among voters, or the fact of having reached a higher age than the minimum voting age."
- "As with the right to vote, restrictions on the right to be elected must be confined to accepted criteria: age requirements, which may be somewhat higher than the legal voting age in the case of candidacies for high governmental office; citizenship requirements; reasonable residency requirements; and proportionate restrictions or disqualification in cases of findings of mental incapacity and criminal convictions."
- "Certain requirements for public office are allowed by the Covenant, but these are limited to reasonable bases, such as minimum age ... Records of discussions held during the drafting of these provisions are clear on this interpretation."
- "Reasonable restrictions for persons wishing to become candidates must not unjustly discriminate, and may include a residency requirement in the country for a certain period of time before the elections..."
- "Often extra restrictions are introduced for being a candidate such as having had residence in the country for some period of time before the elections, or having residence in the constituency…. Such restrictions may well be acceptable."
- "A residence requirement may be imposed; ii. Residence in this case means habitual residence. iii. a length of residence requirement may be imposed on nationals solely for local or regional elections; iv. the requisite period of residence should not exceed six months; a longer period may be required only to protect national minorities. "
- "Reasonable restrictions [on voter registration] include: residence, citizenship, legal detention... criminal conviction."
- "It may be reasonable to exclude any person currently serving a prison sentence for having committed a serious crime. However, loss of candidate rights should be proportional to the crime committed, and candidate rights should be automatically reinstated once the sentence has been served."
- "The Human Rights Committee has recognized that some countries have permissible legislative penalties depriving violators of certain political rights. However, in Alba Pietraroia v. Uruguay (44/1979), the committee made reference to the principle of proportionality in examining the degree of deprivation and stated that a measure as harsh as the deprivation of all political rights for a period of 15 years would have to be specifically justified."
- "If a candidate is required to have a minimum number of supporters for nomination this requirement should be reasonable and not act as a barrier to candidacy."
- "A provision requiring would-be registered parties to obtain a certain number of signatures (between one and five hundred) as a pre-condition to acceptance was upheld as reasonable."
- "Discriminatory criteria such as education, residence, decent or political affiliation, are not acceptable, likewise to require an unreasonable number of signatures for registration."
- "Having collected a minimum number of validated signatures of registered voters. Special attention should be given to the manner of validating signatures. An invalid signature should merely be what it is—an invalid signature. It should not invalidate other signatures or the signature list."
- "The threshold level of support (such as demonstrated through the submission of petitions signed by voters) should also be reasonable (in terms of the number of signatures required, the time allowed for collection, and other procedural requirements). The process of verifying the authenticity of signatures supporting a candidacy must be reasonable and applied in a nondiscriminatory manner."
- "The electoral law should establish the procedure for the verification of signatures collected in support of candidates."
- "Where the legal framework provides for the collection of signatures, it should provide for a reasonable amount of time for collection of signatures."
- "Some countries require the fulfilment of some additional conditions for applications to be presented. In particular, they may consist of a number of signatures."
- "There should be no restrictions on candidates for reasons such as race, sex, religion, political affiliation, ethnic origin, or economic status."
- "Unreasonable restrictions include those based on race, sex, religion, ethnic origin, past political affiliations, language, literacy, property, or ability to pay a registration fee."
- "Parties representing national minorities must be permitted."
- "Neither candidates nor voters must find themselves obliged to reveal their membership of a national minority."
- "The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be guaranteed without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property or official capacity, place of birth or other status."
- "Consensus exists that certain criteria to limit who has the right to vote are unacceptable. Based on Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international human rights instruments, the following criteria cannot be employed to restrict who in a society has the right to vote: Race, Color, Sex, Language, Religion, Political or Other Opinion, National or social origin, or Ownership of property. Similarly, there is agreement that the right to vote cannot be refused to an individual because he or she is illiterate or lacks financial resources. In addition, based on international standards and practices the right to vote should not be denied based on a person's physical disabilities or sexual orientation."
- "...[S]ignificant segments of the population [should not be] disenfranchised (prevented from voting) by: (1) unreasonable criteria restricting eligibility, such as the use of distinctions based on race, color, gender, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, social group, past political affiliations, literacy, property ownership and ability to pay."
- "Unreasonable restrictions [on voter registration] include: political affiliation (past and present)."
- "Ensure that persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in political and public life on an equal basis with others, directly or through freely chosen representatives, including the right and opportunity for persons with disabilities to vote and be elected, inter alia, by: i. Ensuring that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use; ii. Protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums without intimidation, and to stand for elections, to effectively hold office and perform all public functions at all levels of government, facilitating the use of assistive and new technologies where appropriate."
- "An effort should be made to design election materials that are accessible to disadvantaged voters such as the blind and the deaf. In the absence of these materials, assistance should be provided to enable such voters to vote."
- "Polling stations should be situated in venues that are accessible to all voters, especially the elderly and the people with disabilities."
- "There should be clear procedures for the provision of necessary assistance to disabled, illiterate and elderly voters that protect, as far as possible, their right to vote secretly."
- "Election laws may contain special provisions to facilitate voting by persons who are physically disabled, those in hospital or in prisons, those who are out of the country or who cannot come to the polling station for other valid reasons."
- "Handicapped or severely ill people must also have a chance to vote."
- "Voters with special needs, including the disabled, the elderly, students, conscripts, workers (including migrant workers out of the country), foreign service personnel and prisoners who have retained voting rights, should be accommodated."
- "The right of persons to stand for election should not be limited unreasonably by requiring candidates to be members of parties or of specific parties."
- "Respect for fundamental rights a. Democratic elections are not possible without respect for human rights, in particular freedom of expression and of the press, freedom of circulation inside the country, freedom of assembly and freedom of association for political purposes, including the creation of political parties. "
- "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice."
- "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises."
- "The exercise of the right provided for in the foregoing paragraph [freedom of expression] shall not be subject to prior censorship but shall be subject to subsequent imposition of liability, which shall be expressly established by law to the extent necessary to ensure: (b) the protection of national security, public order, or public health or morals."
- "Nothing in the present Covenant may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms recognized herein or at their limitation to a greater extent than is provided for in the present Covenant."
- "[E]very citizen has one vote or equal number of votes with other citizens, and they have the right to exercise on the equal basis with other citizens their voting right, and their vote(s) has (have) the same weight as votes of other voters, and the weight of vote (votes) of the voter should not be affected by the election system applied in the state."
- "Information and materials about voting should be available in minority languages."
- "Unreasonable restrictions [on voter registration] include: literacy."
- "Specific methods such as photographs and symbols should be adopted to ensure that illiterate voters have adequate information on which to base their choice."
- "National authorities should take positive measures to overcome specific difficulties such as illiteracy and language barriers which prevent persons entitled to vote from exercising their right effectively."
- "People who are illiterate must be able to distinguish between the ballots without their right to secret elections infringed."
- "Reasonable requirements are usually limited to minimum age, nationality ... The work of the Human Rights Committee provides a good deal of guidance on the limits of reasonable restrictions. In the course of their deliberations, as mandated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, members of the Committee have noted that the following limitations on voting rights are not permissible: (e) literacy requirements."
- "Unreasonable restrictions [on voter registration] include: property."
- "Reasonable requirements are usually limited to minimum age, nationality ... The work of the Human Rights Committee provides a good deal of guidance on the limits of reasonable restrictions. In the course of their deliberations, as mandated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, members of the Committee have noted that the following limitations on voting rights are not permissible: economic requirements, based on receipt of public assistance, ownership of property, or income."
- "If residence requirements apply to registration, they must be reasonable, and should not be imposed in such a way as to exclude the homeless from the right to vote."
- "…residence is a common requirement for eligibility to vote in a constituency based electoral system. That requirement may however operate in a discriminatory way in respect of refugees...nomadic peoples, or internally displaced persons."
- "Distinctions between those who are entitled to citizenship by birth and those who acquire it by naturalization may raise questions of compatibility with Article 25 [of the ICCPR]."