ACHRS Statement: Iraqi Voting Systems Must Include People with Disabilities
A Human Rights Watch report examines voting access difficulties for Iraqi people with disabilities in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 10, 2021. The voting process could exclude by its structure and legislation hundreds of thousands of people. Amman Center for Human Rights Studies urges Iraqi authorities to make accommodations for inclusive voting in accordance with the right to participate in political life.
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Iraq has one of the highest disability rates in the world, according to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Without accommodation, many people could be excluded from voting in parliament scheduled for October 2021.
Iraqis with disabilities could be denied access to polling stations not only because of the lack of facilities, but also because of Iraqi legislation. In 2013, Iraq signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which requires, in Article 12, the recognition of legal capacity to people with disabilities. Under Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) “State parties shall “guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on equal basis with others.”
However, the Iraqi Civil Code of 1951 “gives the power to judicial authorities to deprive persons with certain type of disabilities, including intellectual, psychosocial, visual, and hearing disabilities, of their ‘legal capacity.’ This deprivation strips the individual of the right to vote or to stand as a candidate in an election.” National legislation also prohibits driving by car on election days, and many polling stations are located on higher floors of buildings without elevators. These barriers, along with the lack of digital voting, prevent many people with disabilities from exercising their right to participate. Bellik Willie, crisis and conflict researcher for Human Rights Watch, urges the Independent Electoral Commission to take inclusive measures to allow voting for all and include people with disabilities as expert observers: “The United Nations and European Assistance Missions’ election monitoring bodies that will monitor the October 10, 2021 parliamentary elections should include people with disabilities as monitors.”
Amman Center for Human Rights Studies urges the Iraqi authorities to make accommodations for voting access. ACHRS supports respect for the right to political participation and calls for compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). We call for the promotion and implementation of the reduction of discrimination in access to voting from an infrastructural as well as a legislative perspective.
Image source: Human Rights Watch
