NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

2.4 Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8) Article 8 – Right to respect for private and family life 1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. 2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. 2.4.1 General overview 690 If we have a look at the title of Article 8 of the Convention, 691 in respect to Article 34 NGOs it may sound very confusing. What private and family life may such persons have? It is absolutely clear that a business entity or an NGO is not supposed to create family except for the situation when a big corporation with subsidiary-companies may be seen as a big ‘family’. In some Slavonic languages, such as Czech, Russian and Ukrainian, a subsidiary company is even called a ‘daughter company’, if we translate the wording directly. 692 Nevertheless, this is not what the Convention means by the term ‘family life’. For the Court, the notion of ‘family life’ is a relationship between individuals, for example, the ties between an applicant and her son, 693 or the relationship between father, mother and daughter, 694 or between the applicant and her daughters 695 and newly the relationship of a cohabiting same-sex couple. 696 We will not find in the Court’s practice, however, any case in which the relationships between two companies or between an individual and a business entity constituted ‘family life’ for the purposes of Article 8 of the Convention. In order to give a better explanation of the rights under Article 8 of the Convention, it would be useful to quote the first paragraph of this Article, which reads as follows: “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.” 697 This provision of the Convention clearly shows that there are four main aspects of the right, namely one’s 1) private life, 2) family life, 3) home 690 The text of this part of the manuscript concerning Article 8 of the Convention is to a large extent based on the article TYMOFEYEVA, Alla. Do legal persons have the right to respect for private and family life? Czech Yearbook on Public and Private International Law, Vol. 5. Prague: Czech International Law Society, Eva Rozkotová, 2014, pages 291-307. 691 Right to respect for private and family life. 692 For example, in Czech affiliated company is called “dceřina společnost”, in Russian it is “dochernyaya kompaniya” and in Ukrainian “dochirnya kompaniya”. 693 Y. U. v. Russia , no. 41354/10, § 95, 13 November 2012. 694 Darren Omoregie and Others v. Norway , no. 265/07, § 53, 31 July 2008. 695 Nunez v. Norway , no. 55597/09, § 65, 28 June 2011. 696 X. and Others v. Austria [GC], no. 19010/07, § 95, ECHR 2013. 697 European Convention on Human Rights as amended by Protocols Nos. 11 and 14, supplemented by Protocols Nos. 1, 4, 6, 7, 12 and 13.

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