A/HRC/19/36 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 16/15, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a study on the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including States, regional organizations, including regional integration organizations, United Nations agencies, the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development of the Economic and Social Council, civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities, and national human rights institutions. The Council also requested that the study be made available on the OHCHR website, in an accessible format, prior to the nineteenth session of the Council. 2. OHCHR sent a note verbale to Member States and letters to intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development requesting responses to a set of questions related to the thematic study. The questionnaire was also sent to United Nations human rights field presences. The annex to the present document contains a full list of respondents. All submissions are available on the OHCHR website.1 II. Political rights: normative content 3. Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes and protects the right of every citizen to take part in the conduct of public affairs, the right to vote and to be elected and the right to have access to public service. The list of political rights contained in this provision is based on article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 4 Political rights have also been set down in a number of other international human rights conventions, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (art. 5 (c)), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (arts. 7 and 8) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (art. 41). At the regional level, political rights have been included, inter alia, in the first Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (art. 3), the American Convention on Human Rights (art. 23) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (art. 13). 5. In paragraph 1 of its general comment No. 25 (1996) on the right to participate in public affairs, voting rights and the right of equal access to public service, the Human Rights Committee emphasized that article 25 “lies at the core of democratic government based on the consent of the people”. In contrast with other human rights and fundamental freedoms, which are ensured to all individuals within the territory and subject to the jurisdiction of the State, most international and regional human rights treaties only recognize political rights for “citizens”. 6. Although only the rights set out in article 25 constitute political rights sensu stricto, a number of other rights are of fundamental importance for the democratic decision-making process. Broadly speaking, political freedoms – such as freedom of opinion, expression, information, media, assembly and association – may also be understood as political rights. 1 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Disability/Pages/StudyPoliticalAndPublicLife.aspx. 3