Respect for Private Life, Family and the Right to Marry

By: Louise Smith, barrister - Updated: 14 Apr 2014 | *Discuss

 

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The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) sets out a list of fundamental rights and freedoms which are believed to be common to all people. The ECHR lists these rights in numbered 'Articles'. Article 8 of the ECHR concerns an individual’s right to respect for their private and family life. Article 12 defines an individual’s right to marry.

The majority of the provisions contained in the ECHR became law in the UK in October 2000 when the Human Rights Act came into force.

The Right to Respect for Private and Family Life

The right to respect for private life is not absolute – the ECHR describes a number of circumstances where the right may be overridden. For example, a public authority may interfere with an individual’s private or family life if they do so in accordance with the law at a time of public emergency, to prevent crime, for public safety or national security reasons, or to protect the rights of somebody else.

Whenever a public authority exercises their powers in a way which may infringe an individual’s right to respect for their private life it must seek to strike a balance between the importance of the individual’s rights and the benefit of their actions.

The Right to Marry

This right is limited in that individuals only have the right to get married to the extent that this is allowed by the relevant laws in their own country. Since the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force in December 2005 same sex couples have, effectively, had the right to get married – or enter into a civil partnership - according to UK law. They now, therefore, have the same rights under this Article of the ECHR as heterosexual couples.

Application of the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life

It should be reiterated that there are numerous circumstances in which a public authority may be entitled to interfere with this right. If it can be shown that it was necessary to interfere with an individual’s right to respect for private life for one of the reasons listed in Article 8, a public authority is unlikely to be found to have breached this right.

Areas of life which may be covered by the right to respect for private and family life include:

• Sexual identity or gender issues
• The right to dress in a particular way
• An individual’s right to have access to official documents which contain information about them
• The right of a family to live together
• The right to enjoy one’s home without being affected by noise or pollution
• The right not to have post, telephone calls or emails interfered with
• The use of CCTV
• A patient who wishes to refuse medical treatment.

Application of the Right to Marry

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