A/HRC/19/36 modes and formats of communication in official interactions (for instance, political broadcast). V. Main issues concerning the effective realization of the rights of persons with disabilities to participate in political and public life A. Universal suffrage 25. The concept of universal suffrage lies at the core of modern democracies. It consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens (or subjects) as a whole. The first movements toward universal suffrage occurred in the early nineteenth century, and focused on extending voting rights to all male citizens, regardless of property requirements or other measures of wealth. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the focus of the universal suffrage movement became the removal of voting restrictions against women. In this process, the understanding of democracy changed to such an extent that the exclusion of certain groups of individuals based on grounds such as race, colour or sex would represent today an obvious violation of the principle of universal suffrage. 26. Article 25 (b) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes the right of every citizen “to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage”. A certain contradiction can be seen between the principle of universal – i.e. unlimited – suffrage in this provision and the authorization, in the chapeau of article 25, to provide for reasonable restrictions (“without unreasonable restrictions”).2 However, this incongruence can be explained by the fact that at the time the Covenant was adopted, most States viewed restrictions on the right to vote for individuals belonging to certain groups or categories – including aliens, children and juveniles, persons lacking legal capacity and convicted criminals – as not representing a violation of universal suffrage. 27. In assessing the compatibility of these restrictions with the principle of universal suffrage, the Human Rights Committee affirmed that any conditions which apply to the exercise of voting rights should be based on “objective and reasonable criteria”. It may be reasonable, for example, to require a higher age for election or appointment to particular offices than for exercising the right to vote, while restrictions of the right to vote on the ground of physical disability would constitute a violation of article 25. The Committee also held that in its view, “established mental incapacity may be a ground for denying a person the right to vote or to hold office”.3 28. The legal landscape has changed dramatically since the adoption of the Human Rights Committee’s general comment in 1996. Today, it may be argued that the majority of voting restrictions “are no longer compatible with the prohibition of discrimination in articles 2, para. 1, and 25 or with the present-day understanding of democracy”.4 This holds true, in particular, with regard to limitations of the right to vote and stand for election on the basis of psychosocial or intellectual disabilities. 2 3 4 Manfred Nowak, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – CCPR Commentary, 2nd revised ed. (Kehl am Rhein, Engel, 2005), p. 576. General comment No. 25, para. 4. Nowak, UN Covenant (footnote 2 above), p. 577. 7