by CHRISTIAN WENANDE
Taking away voting rights from the disabled goes against a UN convention that has itself attracted criticism
As Denmark prepares to implement a UN disability rights convention, advocates here are calling for a change to a law that unintentionally excludes some disabled people from voting.
According to a report released last month by the Danish Institute of Human Rights (IMR), in 2011 alone nearly 200 Danes, the majority disabled and mentally ill, but also some who were compulsive gamblers, lost their right to vote because they were found to be unable to make certain decisions on their own. Under the terms of the 1997 guardianship law, such people must have their guardian handle personal matters such as signing official documents and managing their finances.
In the report, the IMR concludes that the guardianship law violates the European Convention of Human Rights and the UN disability convention, two agreements that Denmark has pledged to abide by.
The issues surrounding the capacity of the disabled to vote is just one of a number of issues looked at in the IMR report, but making any progress, they say, is blocked by a slow-moving UN process as Denmark seeks to implement the organisation’s disability rights convention.
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