Source: https://eos.cartercenter.org/summaries/351
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 05:57:55+00:00

Document:
Particular individual electoral rights should be extended to associations and political parties.
The beneficiaries of the rights recognized by the Covenant are individuals. Although, with the exception of article 1, the Covenant does not mention he rights of legal persons or similar entities or collectivities, many of the rights recognized by the Covenant, such as the freedom to manifest one's religion or belief (article 18), the freedom of association (article 22) or the rights of members of minorities (article 27), may be enjoyed in community with others. The fact that the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications is restricted to those submitted by or on behalf of individuals (article 1 of the Optional Protocol) does not prevent such individuals from claiming that actions or omissions that concern legal persons and similar entities amount to a violation of their own rights.
The Court reiterates that, under its case-law, the notion of “individual rights” (see Aziz v. Cyprus, no. 69949/01, § 25, ECHR 2004-V, and Ždanoka v. Latvia [GC], no. 58278/00, § 102, ECHR 2006-IV) or “subjective rights” (see Melnychenko v. Ukraine, no. 17707/02, § 54, ECHR 2004-X) to stand for election under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 have mostly been confined to physical persons. However, it has been recently accepted that, when electoral legislation or the measures taken by national authorities restrict individual candidates’ right to stand for election through a party list, the relevant party, as a corporate entity, could claim to be a victim under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 independently of its candidates (see Russian Conservative Party of Entrepreneurs and Others v. Russia, nos. 55066/00 and 55638/00, §§ 53-67, 11 January 2007.).
There are a cluster of individual rights considered as essential for the establishment and maintenance of a democracy. They extend from the right to form political and other associations, to campaign, stand for office and vote. The rights extend beyond the rights of the individual voters to the rights of political parties and other association to canvas support and campaign. The cluster is normally desegregated into the following specific rights: the right to vote, in particular the right to a secret ballot; the right to regular and fair elections; the right to stand for public office; freedom of association; freedom of assembly; freedom of expression.

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