Today, a discussion on ensuring the electoral right of persons with disabilities have taken place between the Human Rights Defender's Office, NGO and mass media representatives.
Mr. Artyom Sedrakyan, Head of the Department of the Office of the Human Rights Defender and Ms. Hasmik Hakobyan, Armenia Country Director of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) made opening speeches during the discussion organized within “Promoting Human Rights Protection in Armenia for All” project.
The Head of Department for Social, Economic and Cultural Rights Protection Mrs. Tatevik Tokhyan informed that if last year five complaints were received on the issues with regard to persons with disabilities during the electoral process, this year more than 20 were related mainly to the inaccessibility of polling stations.
"We have received complaint that concerned voting rooms located on the second floor of the building or in basement, as well as inaccessible furnishing of polling stations," said Tatevik Tokhyan.
She also noted that this year, visually impaired people had not been provided with ballot-papers in Braille system, and not all polling stations had a magnifying glass for people with visual impairments.
NGOs of the field noted that, in order to exercise the electoral right of persons with disabilities, besides providing reasonable accommodation, other measures should be taken to ensure accessibility of information and communications during election campaign. During the discussion the issue of involvement of persons with disabilities in electoral commissions was also raised.
At the end of the discussion the participants expressed their readiness to work jointly to solve the issues of the field.