1726 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on Council of Europe member and observer States, and States whose parliaments enjoy observer or partner for democracy status with the Parliamentary Assembly to: (...) 7.3 with regard to combating discrimination against and stigmatisation of persons with disabilities: (...) 7.3.3. provide civic education in accessible formats."
- "In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on Council of Europe member and observer States, and States whose parliaments enjoy observer or partner for democracy status with the Parliamentary Assembly to: (...) 7.4. with regard to accessibility of polling stations, information and procedures, including electoral campaigns: 7.4.1. ensure physical accessibility of public buildings, including polling stations, national, regional and local parliaments and government buildings, and guarantee that at least one polling station in every election district provides full accessibility."
- "In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on Council of Europe member and observer States, and States whose parliaments enjoy observer or partner for democracy status with the Parliamentary Assembly to: (...) 7.4. with regard to accessibility of polling stations, information and procedures, including electoral campaigns: (...) 7.4.2. ensure the provision of information about electoral processes, voting procedures and political programmes in accessible formats, including in easy-to-read and easy-to-understand versions, with sign interpretation when required, subtitles for videos and Braille versions; 7.4.3. provide ballot papers in accessible formats and tactile voting devices for blind people in at least one polling station in every election district."
- "In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on Council of Europe member and observer States, and States whose parliaments enjoy observer or partner for democracy status with the Parliamentary Assembly to: (…) 7.6. with regard to active participation in elections: (…) 7.6.3. provide candidates with disabilities with additional financial support to cover the extra costs they might incur for carrying out electoral campaigns."
- "The Assembly encourages political parties to demonstrate their commitment to making political life more inclusive and representative by producing and disseminating accessible political manifestos and ensuring accessibility of their meeting premises and events. Political parties should promote participation and offer persons with disabilities electable positions on electoral lists."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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 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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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”."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "During electoral campaigns, a competent impartial electoral management body (EMB) or judicial body should be empowered to require private companies to remove clearly defined third-party content from the internet, based on electoral laws and in line with international standards."
- "During electoral periods, the open internet and net neutrality need to be protected."
- "Citizens need to be protected in the processing of personal data particularly during the election period when large amounts of personal data are processed, including those available in the electoral registers. As regards the registers data privacy has to be balanced against the transparency required for electoral integrity."
- "The individual’s online behaviour cannot be monitored without the free, specific, informed and unambiguous consent of the data subject or other legitimate basis laid down by law according to Article 5(2) of Convention 108+. Furthermore, when the processing concerns sensitive categories of data such as information revealing political opinions, an explicit consent may also be required as complementary protection (Article 6 of Convention 108+)."
- "The data processing in both electoral and political advertising (in particular microtargeting advertising) context shall comply with data protection principles under Article 5 of Convention 108+. These personal data must be processed in compliance with purpose limitation and data minimisation principles. In particular, according to Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)4 of the Committee of Ministers on the protection of human rights with regard to social networking services, social networks should secure the informed consent of their users before their personal data is shared with other categories of people or companies or used in ways other than those necessary for the specified purposes for which they were originally collected."
- "Therefore, the Venice Commission has issued two recommendations which remain highly relevant and need to be implemented: - Revising rules and regulations on political advertising, in terms of access to the media (updating broadcasting quotas, limits and reporting categories, introducing new measures covering internet-based media, platforms and other services, addressing the implications of micro targeting) and in terms of spending (broadening of scope of communication channels covered by the relevant legislation, addressing the monitoring capacities of national authorities. "
- "Therefore, the Venice Commission has issued two recommendations which remain highly relevant and need to be implemented: - Ensuring accountability of internet intermediaries, in terms of transparency and access to data enhancing transparency of spending, specifically for political advertising. In particular, internet intermediaries should provide access to data on paid political advertising, so as to avoid facilitating illegal (foreign) involvement in elections, and to identify the categories of target audiences."
- "Measures such as the adoption of corporate digital ethics codes and of self-regulatory mechanisms to solve conflicts between companies and users would also allow greater regulatory flexibility for the benefit of the interests of users and companies, while depressurising the relationship with the government and promoting co-responsibility of online behaviours."
- "Any language requirements should not present an unreasonable limitation on candidacies and should be clearly provided for by law. Language tests should be transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and administered fairly."
- "With regard to the principle of proportionality, parties or candidates should not be disqualified from standing for election other than for the most serious reasons given the fundamental nature of the right to stand. They should be given an opportunity to correct any technical deficiencies on their applications for registration and should not be disqualified or refused registration solely on technical grounds."
- "Special measures to promote the election of national-minority candidates to public office should be encouraged. For example, experience has shown that lowering the number of supporting signatures required for the registration of candidates from national-minority parties can be an effective special measure. This could also be combined with an exemption from the requirement to surpass a nationwide threshold in proportional representation systems. When determining the size of electoral deposits, contribution and spending limits, eligibility thresholds and other parameters of electoral frameworks, states should consider their impact on the participation of candidates belonging to national minorities and, if needed, take targeted measures to ensure that the right to effective participation of minorities in the electoral processes is not unduly restricted."
- "Ideally, both national and regional thresholds should be low enough to give national-minority parties the chance to have their candidates elected to a national legislature."
- "For example, national-minority parties can be exempted from the need to surpass a legal threshold in order to qualify for seat allocation or can benefit from a lower legal threshold than other parties to obtain representation."
- "While the principle of one person, one vote is one of the most fundamental rules of democratic electoral systems, in some cases a dual voting system can be used to promote representation of minority communities."
- "According to a study by the Venice Commission, dual voting is an exceptional measure that has to be within the legal framework of the constitution and may be permitted if it respects the principle of proportionality in its various aspects. This implies that it can only be justified if: - It is impossible to reach the aim pursued through other less intrusive measures that do not infringe upon equal voting rights; - It has a transitional character; and - It concerns only a numerically small minority."
- "If there is the political will to ensure the representation of such minorities, this can be achieved by introducing special measures through reserved seats. Reserved seats are contested within a minority community and filled by people representing minority communities."
- "Public security providers should not be engaged in politics, take sides or demonstrate preferential support for any specific party or candidate. They should remain neutral and be perceived as impartial."
- "Public security providers must ensure equal conditions and guarantee equal protection for all participants throughout an electoral process."
- "Public security providers should operate in accordance with domestic law and international norms, and ensure that any necessary interventions are only required to achieve specific objectives of maintaining order based on a legitimate aim. Any restrictions during an electoral process should be based in law and be proportional to the objectives."
- "The use of force must be considered an exceptional measure, not to be executed arbitrarily. It should be proportionate to the threat, minimizing damage and injury, and used only to the extent required to achieve a legitimate objective. National legislation should clearly establish circumstances justifying its use. This includes providing adequate advance notice and using only the level of force needed to deal with various threats. Authorities should develop a range of responses to enable a differentiated and proportional use of force."
- "Public security providers should avoid the use of force in the event of unlawful though non-violent assemblies or limit its use to a minimum."
- "In dispersing violent assemblies and demonstrations, specific reference is made concerning firearms, i.e., that they may be used only when less dangerous measures prove ineffective and when there is an imminent threat of death or of serious injury. Firing indiscriminately into a violent crowd is never a legitimate or an acceptable method of dispersal."