Authors
1 Associate Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Qom, Qom, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Qom, Qom, Iran
3 Ph. D. in Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Qom, Qom, Iran
Abstract
The right to political participation is a fundamental human right that derives from self-determination. This right is set out in important documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and so on. One of the obvious aspects of the right to political participation is the right to vote. The views of these documents on voting are a right based view towards citizens and a commitment based view towards governments. However, in some countries in the world, there is an electoral system in which voting and participation in compulsory elections is a civic duty, so that punishment is foreseen for not doing so. In this study, using a descriptive and analytical method and reviewing the views of institutions that supervise such documents, such as the Human Rights Committee and the European Commission on Human Rights, we are looking to answer this question: Is the compulsory voting conflicting with the foreseen rights in human rights instruments? The findings of this study indicate that what is mandatory in a compulsory voting is merely the presence of the ballot box and participation in the election and casting votes in the box And the observance of the principle of secret vote prevents violations of human rights such as freedom of opinion, freedom of opinion, freedom of conscience and freedom of expression. Therefore, compulsory voting, provided that voting is secret and not required to write a candidate or party name on the ballot paper, does not conflict with human rights.
Keywords
English
- A) Books
- Birch, Sarah (2009), Full Participation: A Comparative Study of Compulsory Voting, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
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- The Electoral Commission of the UK Parliament (2006) , Compulsory voting around the world.
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- Bart, Engelen (2007),” Why Liberals Can Favour Compulsory Attendance,Political Studies Association”, Politics, Vol.29, No.3.
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- C) Documents
- 9. African(BANJUL) Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Adopted 27 June 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force 21 October 1986.
- 10. American Convention on Human Rights, Adopted at the Inter-American Specialized Conference on Human Rights, San Jose, Costa Rica, 22 November 1969.
- 11. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 25: The right to participate in public affairs, voting rights and the right of equal access to public service (Art. 25): Human Rights Committee. 07/12/1996, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.7, General Comment No. 25.
- General Assembly ,International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, General Assembly resolution 2200 A.
- Malkopoulou, Anthoula, (2009), Lost Voters: Participation in EU elections and the case for compulsory voting, CEPS Working Document No.317/July 2009.
- 14. Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ETS No.009, Paris, 20/03/1952.
- 15. General Assembly, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, General Assembly resolution 217 A.
- 16. United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Democracy in Latin America – Towards a citizens’democracy , 2004.
- D) Cases
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- 18. European Human Rights Commission, v Austria, Application No.4982/71, Decision of 22 March 1972.
- 19. European Human Rights Commission ,X. v Austria, Application No.1718/62, Decision of 22 April 1965.
- E) Websites
- www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/voting/compulsory_voting.htm
- www.internationalidea.net /compulsory voting
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