Privacy in Public Places Celebrities, Suicides, Outsiders, Naked Men and Muslim Veils on the Street

Abstract

The doctrine of privacy on the streets and in other public places is a relatively new development in European human rights jurisprudence. People do peculiar things on the streets, which sometimes turn out to be of interest to the media, and sometimes these actions lead to social tensions. In some instances people merely exercise their freedom of speech or other political rights in various ways and at other times individuals simply wish to remain unnoticed. The four cases detailed in this paper all raise questions relating to the protection of privacy on the streets. Although we are far from seeing a distinct and consistent ECtHR practice, some of the most important considerations are already identifiable, and such cases may in the future may resolved along similar lines.