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FRANCE-DISABILITIES-RIGHTS
Mentally disabled win right to freely marry and vote in France
PARIS, Oct 25, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Disabled people who have been made wards
of court will soon be guaranteed the right to freely vote or get married, the
French government said Thursday.
The measures “will give handicapped people back their citizenship,” Sophie
Cluzel, junior minister in charge of disabilities, told reporters.
The measure would apply to some 310,000 people with disabilities who have
been made wards of court and who, until now, could be banned by a judge from
voting — many of them people with mental disabilities.
The aim “is to allow everyone to vote, at the latest, in the next municipal
elections in 2020,” Cluzel also said in an interview with the newspaper Le
Parisien.
New measures, to be introduced by the end of the year, would also allow
disabled wards of the court to freely marry or divorce without the need to go
before a judge.
Other measures include permanent financial support for disabled people
whose condition is unlikely to ever improve, easing the administrative burden
of repeatedly having to apply for benefits.
BSS/AFP/RY/1605 hrs