Your Human Right to Vote

By Kathleen Montgomery

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is unequivocal — the right to vote is a human right:  “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country…The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of the government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures”  (UDHR, Article 21).   The human right to vote is enshrined in several international covenants adopted by Member States of the United Nations. Following reviews of articles of the UDHR and several United Nations conventions that pertain to voting rights, this Briefing Book next reviews the U.S. Constitutional Amendments that address voting rights, along with several key pieces of federal voting rights legislation and an important Supreme Court case.  

For more detail, please see the Human Rights Special Interest Group’s Briefing Book on Your Human Right to Vote.