THE RIGHT TO FAMILY LIFE: THE EUROPEAN AND INTER-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES. THE PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION

Abstract

Family, as a fundamental and natural group unity of society, has a special status both under a national law and under international regulations. The right to family life has been recognized as one of the basic human rights. States are obliged to respect the family life and to refrain from an arbitrary or unlawful interference in the life. In addition, States have obligations to adopt appropriate legal measures aimed at protecting everyone’s private and family life. Social changes should be taken into account during the implementation of States’ obligations (including changes in the family life model, eg. moving away from the ‘traditional’ concept of family as marriage of woman and man and their children). In the text it is presented an overview of how the concepts of family and family life are understood under the international human rights law. Then, the practice of the European and Inter-American human rights bodies was analyzed in relation to the protection of family life. The text is also an attempt to address the question whether people remaining in family models other than ‘traditional’ create the family life and whether the life in protected under the international human rights law.