Right to a private and family life
Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and correspondence. This right is subject to proportionate and lawful restrictions.
Article 8 is a broad-ranging right that is often closely connected with other rights such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to respect for property.
The obligation on the State under Article 8 is to refrain from interfering with the right itself and also to take some positive measures, for example, to criminalise extreme breaches of the right to a private life by private individuals.
Private life
The concept of a right to a private life encompasses the importance of personal dignity and autonomy and the interaction a person has with others, both in private or in public.
Respect for one’s private life includes:
● respect for individual sexuality (so, for example, investigations into the sexuality of members of the armed forces engages the right to respect for a private life);
● the right to personal autonomy and physical and psychological integrity, i.e. the right not to be physically interfered with;
● respect for private and confidential information, particularly the storing and sharing of such information;
● the right not to be subject to unlawful state surveillance;
● respect for privacy when one has a reasonable expectation of privacy; and
● the right to control the dissemination of information about one’s private life, including photographs taken covertly.
Family life
Article 8 also provides the right to respect for one’s established family life. This includes close family ties, although there is no pre-determined model of a family or family life. It includes any stable relationship, be it married, engaged, or defacto; between parents and children; siblings; grandparents and grandchildren etc. This right is often engaged, for example, when measures are taken by the State to separate family members (by removing children into care, or deporting one member of a family group).
Respect for the home
Right to respect for the home includes a right not to have one’s home life interfered with, including by unlawful surveillance, unlawful entry, arbitrary evictions etc.
Respect for correspondence
Everyone has the right to uninterrupted and uncensored communication with others – a right particularly of relevance in relation to phone-tapping; email surveillance; and the reading of letters.
« Back to Glossary Index