Human Rights Commission States "No Violation of Voting Rights Even for Patients Hospitalized in Closed Wards"

National Human Rights Commission building. Photo by Human Rights Commission

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission has expressed the opinion that patients hospitalized in psychiatric medical institutions should be provided with necessary conveniences to exercise their legitimate voting rights in the upcoming 20th presidential election next month. The intention is that even patients admitted to closed wards should not have their constitutionally guaranteed voting rights infringed upon.

On the 23rd, the Human Rights Commission announced that it conveyed the opinion to the Chairman of the Central Election Commission and the Minister of Health and Welfare the day before, stating, "It is necessary to thoroughly guide and supervise psychiatric medical institutions to ensure that the voting rights of patients hospitalized in psychiatric medical institutions are not violated, and to support conveniences necessary for voting, such as transportation assistance." The Commission added, "We hope that this expression of opinion will serve as an opportunity for people with disabilities, including patients hospitalized in psychiatric medical institutions, to exercise their legitimate voting rights in the presidential election."

Earlier, a petitioner filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on the 9th of this month, stating that although they wished to vote in the upcoming presidential election next month, they were at risk of having their voting rights restricted due to being hospitalized in a closed ward of a psychiatric medical institution. According to the Human Rights Commission's investigation, the psychiatric medical institution in question had not received guidance on related procedures from the local election commission and thus failed to apply for absentee voting for hospitalized patients. The respondent reportedly argued, "In the petitioner’s case, going out is impossible without the attending physician’s permission, and according to COVID-19 quarantine guidelines, all patients hospitalized in psychiatric medical institutions are prohibited from going out or overnight stays, making early voting or voting on election day difficult."

However, the Human Rights Commission viewed that restricting a patient’s voting rights based on a doctor’s order could constitute a violation of fundamental rights, infringing the principle of legal reservation. Furthermore, considering that most psychiatric medical institutions allow patients to go out for certain reasons such as court appearances even during the COVID-19 situation, it was judged that voting rights cannot be considered less important than these reasons.

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