Prisoners’ voting rights : UN Human Rights Committee asks Russia to amend its Constitution

Bowring, Bill (2011) Prisoners’ voting rights : UN Human Rights Committee asks Russia to amend its Constitution. EHRAC bulletin (16). pp. 5-6.

Abstract

This article analyses prisoner voting rights in Russia. On 21 March 2011 the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations (HRC), the treaty body for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted, by thirteen votes to two, its Views concerning the communication submitted by two prisoners, Denis Yevdokimov and Artiom Rezanov, against the Russian Federation. The authors of the communication complained that Art. 32(3) of the 1993 Russian Constitution, which restricts the right of persons deprived of liberty to vote, contradicts Art. 25 of the ICCPR, which provides that every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without unreasonable restrictions, to vote. They also complained under Art. 2(3) of the ICCPR that there was no effective domestic remedy in Russia. The complaint to the HRC was possible because Russia is bound by the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR (OP1) - the UK is not. The USSR ratified the ICCPR in 1973.

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