Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Article 3 of Protocol No. 1

  • Steve Foster

Prisoner voting rights and the ECHR: Myslihaka and Others v. Albania

December 01, 2023

by Dr Steve Foster Disenfranchisement of convicted prisoners in Europe remains varied despite the Grand Chamber’s pivotal decision in Hirst v. United Kingdom No. 2 that any interference with a prisoner’s right to vote had to be necessary and proportionate. Thus, since Hirst the Court has upheld a number of State restrictions on prisoner voting […]

  • Balázs Majtényi

The right answer without a reasonable argument? The shortcomings of Bakirdzi and E.C. v. Hungary

January 19, 2023

by Balázs Majtényi On 10 November 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) published its decision in the case of Bakirdzi and E.C. v. Hungary. According to the judgment, the representation of national minorities in the Hungarian Parliament violates the right to free elections (Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention) in […]

  • Merel Vrancken

(Not) applying CRPD standards and the question of fair referencing: Toplak and Mrak v. Slovenia

February 08, 2022

By Merel Vrancken In the case of Toplak and Mrak v. Slovenia, two persons with muscular dystrophy complained that they had been discriminated against with respect to their right to vote because their polling stations had not been made fully accessible so as to ensure that they could vote fully independently and in secret. The […]

  • Merel Vrancken

Disenfranchisement of woman with a disability (yet again) reveals ECtHR’s struggle with CRPD in Caamaño Valle v. Spain

June 23, 2021

By Merel Vrancken, PhD student and assistant in constitutional law at UHasselt. In the case of Caamaño Valle v. Spain, the ECtHR held that the disenfranchisement of a woman with a mental disability did not amount to a violation of her right to vote under art. 3 of Protocol No. 1, nor did it amount […]

  • Guest Blogger

G.K. v. Belgium: Post-electoral Disputes of a Political Nature Once Again in the Spotlight

June 06, 2019

By Julian Clarenne (PhD researcher at the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherches en droit constitutionnel et administratif, Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles) On 21 May 2019, the European Court of Human Rights delivered an awaited judgment in G. K. v. Belgium on the competence of elected assemblies in post-electoral disputes. It found that the Belgian State had violated […]