Click on a word which is in bold to read what it means.
The Parliament Magazine published an article on the new Spanish law
that allows people with intellectual disabilities
to vote.
Here is the easy-to-read version:
In Spain, around 100.000 people with intellectual disabilities
will vote for the first time
at the European elections in May.
The Spanish law has finally changed
and a lot of people will get their right to vote back.
This change of the law
also happened thanks to organisations
like Plena Inclusión,
who did a campaign called #MyVoteCounts.
For 7 years
Plena Inclusión had been talking to politicians
and other people.
Plena Inclusión told them
that it is wrong
to deny the right to vote
to people with intellectual disabilities.
Now Plena Inclusión said
that they will focus
on making all the information for voting
more accessible and easy to understand.
Inclusion Europe‘s president Jyrki Pinomaa
spoke to the Parliament magazine
about this victory of Plena Inclusión:
“The victory in Spain shows
that the UN CRPD is very good
at supporting the rights
of people with intellectual disabilities.
Denying the right to vote
to people with intellectual disabilities
is against the UN CRPD.
But all EU countries have signed the UN CRPD.
So they need to follow it.
It is good that there are some positive changes,
for example in Spain, France and Germany.”
Jyrki Pinomaa also said
that we need to make elections accessible
for people with intellectual disabilities.
For example, we need more elections material in easy-to-read.
And we need to allow support persons
in the polling station.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
is also talking about the right to vote
for people with intellectual disabilities.
The EESC said that in Europe
there are still many people with intellectual disabilities
who won’t be able to vote at the European elections.
In 9 EU countries
when you get a guardian
you loose the right to vote.
In 7 countries
a judge or a doctor decides
if a person with intellectual disabilities
can vote.
Krzysztof Pater did this research for EESC.
Krzysztof said that this information is bad news.
He said the EU must do better.
