A/HRC/27/29 A. Unreasonable and discriminatory restrictions on political participation rights 32. Illegitimate restrictions on rights to political and public participation constitute an important barrier to the equal exercise of political rights. In its General Comment No. 25, the Human Rights Committee stated that it would, for example, be “unreasonable to restrict the right to vote on the ground of physical disability or to impose literacy, educational or property requirements” and that membership of a political party “should not be a condition of eligibility to vote, nor a ground of disqualification” (para. 10). 33. Limiting political participation on the grounds of intellectual or psychosocial impairment, the application of linguistic requirements for candidates for public office or the automatic disenfranchisement of detainees, convicted felons or people under guardianship have also been found by human rights mechanisms to constitute unreasonable and discriminatory restrictions on the exercise of political and public participation rights.28 B. Non-citizens and political participation 34. Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights applies only to citizens. States are free to establish the requirements for the granting of citizenship; however, under international human rights law, these conditions should be nondiscriminatory, objective and reasonable.29 35. International human rights mechanisms have reiterated that overly restrictive and/or discriminatory requirements for obtaining citizenship may impede effective participation in political and public affairs (see A/HRC/17/33, para. 65, and CERD/C/EST/CO/7). The mechanisms have called on States to take measures to ensure that citizenship is not unduly denied to minorities, long-term residents, foreign family members of citizens, stateless persons and other groups.30 States have also been requested to remove restrictions on political rights based on the mechanism through which citizenship was acquired – by naturalization, by descent or by birth (see CCPR/CO/69/KWT and CERD/C/60/CO/11). 36. Examples of limited electoral rights being extended to non-citizens exist in a growing number of States (see CMW/C/AZE/CO/1, CMW/C/BOL/CO/1, CERD/C/BEL/CO/15, CERD/C/ISL/CO/18, CERD/C/CZE/CO/7 and A/HRC/13/23). The Independent Expert on minority issues has called on States to “consider allowing noncitizens belonging to minorities to vote, stand as candidates in local elections and be members of the governing boards of self-governing bodies, while making sure that access to citizenship is regulated in a non-discriminatory manner” (A/HRC/13/23, para. 64). 37. In addition to ensuring that the conditions for obtaining citizenship are not directly or indirectly discriminatory, States must also take measures to guarantee that non-citizens, including migrants (regardless of their migration status), non-permanent residents, refugees, 28 29 30 See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No. 1; CCPR/C/USA/CO/3 and Rev.1; and Case of Söyler v. Turkey, European Court of Human Rights, Application No. 29411/07, Decision of 17 September 2013; A/66/290. See also Nowak (footnote 4 above), p. 577, and Sarah Joseph et al., The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2004). See Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 30 (2004), paras. 3–4, and A/HRC/17/33, para. 65. See Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 30; A/HRC/13/25, para. 25; A/HRC/17/33, paras. 67 and 70. See also CERD/C/JOR/CO/13-17, para. 13, and CERD/C/THA/CO/1-3. 9