Suffrage and Disability: what has been done, what remains to be done.
About a year ago, on December 6, 2018, it was published in the Official Gazette reform of the Organic Law of Electoral Regime (LOREG) that allows people with intellectual disabilities exercise their right to vote without any limitation. The reform was approved unanimously in Parliament - in a political climate not particularly conducive to the pact - and marked the legal recognition of a long lawsuit claimed by groups linked to disability. The actual scope of the reform (approximately 100,000 people are affected) may not adequately reflect the scale of this social and democratic progress. We should therefore pause a little about the genesis of this measure, its implementation and the challenges that remain despite the legal modification.
The starting point is the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted on 13 December 2006 by the United Nations General Assembly and entered into force on 3 May 2008. This International Treaty has been a change of paradigm in consideration of disability. It has grown from an essentially medical or rehabilitative model to a social model, which looks at disability as a human rights issue. The starting point is that the sources originating disabilities are not individual – as the rehabilitative model suggests – but primarily social. Thus, disability is a complex phenomenon that is not simply limited to an attribute of the person, but is the result of a set of conditions, many of which are created by the social context. This has generated a different look to the person with disabilities, focusing primarily on its status as human beings with equal rights and dignity of others and secondly, in a condition (disability) that goes with it, and that requires, under certain circumstances, of specific measures to ensure the enjoyment and exercise of rights on an equal basis as other people (Palacios and Bariffi, 2007: 24). These measures include promotion techniques such as positive action, reverse discrimination or duty to make reasonable adjustments. The aim is that people with disabilities can have equal opportunities as other people in the design and development of their own life plans. The social model is based on the values that are the foundation of rights: the dignity of the person, freedom (as autonomy), equality and solidarity. It only focuses on the medical characteristics of the person incidentally and only when necessary. It places the individual at the center of all decisions affecting them, and it locates the root of the problem outside of the individual in society.
The text of the Convention addresses, among other issues, the recognition of a number of rights that require an added support to be fully effective in some cases. Firstly, Article 12 recognizes that all persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.
Article 29 recognizes the right of political participation for persons with disabilities on an equal basis, directly or through freely chosen representatives, including the right and opportunity for people with disabilities to vote and be elected. It also establishes a mandate for the government to facilitate such participation, in particular demands them [...]
Complete article here: https://www.minsait.com/ideasfordemocracy/en/suffrage-and-disability-what-has-been-done-what-remains-be-done-full-length-article
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