2025 Theses Master's

Non-Citizen Political Disenfranchisement as a Human Rights Deficit

Cata, Elena

This thesis explores the tension between international human rights law (IHRL) and its application as it pertains to non-citizen voting rights. While scholars have examined this issue as a democratic deficit and some states, including in the United States, have historically enacted provisions to award suffrage to non-citizens, this issue remains largely unaddressed by the human rights framework, which traditionally emphasizes universal rights but fails to incorporate comprehensive political rights for non-citizens.

This research seeks to bridge this divide by arguing that voting rights for non-citizens constitutes consideration as a human rights issue in accordance with IHRL. Through a mixed-methods approach, including theoretical analysis, a historical case study, and analysis of IHRL, the study investigates whether the right to vote for non-citizens is a neglected human rights issue and how IHRL can be leveraged to address this gap. Non-citizen disenfranchisement is presented through a theoretical lens as a significant blind spot that undermines the legitimacy of democracy. A case study examining the history of non-citizen voting in the United States reveals that the practice of extending voting rights to non-citizens is neither inconceivable nor unprecedented.

By analyzing the democratic principles that justify inclusion, this research highlights how disenfranchisement not only contradicts democratic ideals but also undermines human rights, given the interdependent and mutually reinforcing relationship between democracy and human rights. By exploring the incongruities between universal human rights embedded in IHRL and the citizenship-based exclusion from the electorate, the study highlights the paradox that while human rights are meant to transcend national borders, their implementation regarding voting rights are explicitly contingent on nation-state’s conception of citizenship.

The study then explores how non-discrimination principles have been employed to secure social, economic, and cultural rights for non-citizens, analyzing whether these legal frameworks and principles could similarly be leveraged to advocate for their political enfranchisement. Ultimately, this thesis asserts that non-citizen disenfranchisement is not only a democratic deficit, but a human rights deficit that is paradoxical and self-defeating. The human rights framework demands a critical self-examination of how the right to vote is interdependent on the acquisition of other fundamental rights and how it is integral to human dignity.