The journal “Access to Justice in Eastern Europe” has published an article by Dr Dovilė Pūraitė-Andrikienė, a researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, titled “Legal Capacity and Electoral Rights in Lithuania: The Issue of Compatibility between the Constitution and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

In her publication, the author draws attention to a persistent problem in Lithuania: persons with disabilities who have been declared legally incapacitated by a court cannot exercise their political rights–namely, the right to vote and to stand for election. In 2010, Lithuania ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter – the Convention), whose Article 29 clearly states that all persons with disabilities have the right not only to vote but also to be elected. However, the implementation of this provision has been challenged by constitutional restrictions: the Lithuanian Constitution explicitly prohibits persons declared legally incapacitated from exercising electoral rights. Thus, it is evident that in order for Lithuania to meet international human rights standards and ensure equality for all persons, adjustments to the legal capacity requirement are necessary. According to Dr D. Pūraitė-Andrikienė, legislative reforms alone are insufficient to resolve this issue–constitutional amendments would be required.

The experience of other EU Member States that have successfully reformed their legal systems to align them with the Convention could serve as further encouragement for Lithuania to initiate discussions on amending the Constitution with regard to the legal capacity requirement.

The open-access article is available in English here.