Legal briefing: Statelessness and the right to respect for private and family life October 2024 obligations under the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions17 together with other international legal instruments, including the ECtHR’s interpretation of a particular provision of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). 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. Just as the CJEU may look to ECtHR standards, the ECtHR must ensure that rights and freedoms defined in the ECHR are interpreted and applied in a manner which does not diminish rights already guaranteed under other international agreements which a respondent State has ratified. This safeguard is established in Article 53 ECHR. While the ECtHR is primarily concerned with the interpretation of its own provisions, if a Council of Europe Member State is also a party to other international agreements, such as UN treaties, the 1954 Convention or the 1961 Convention, there is an opportunity to present to the ECtHR the relevant legal standards that should apply in light of the universal application of human rights, and in light of the requirements of Article 53 ECHR.18 Even if a State is not bound by a particular instrument (and Article 53 does not therefore directly apply), the Court may of its own accord choose to examine such international standards to assist its analysis and evaluation of the merits of the case. The Court has consistently noted in its jurisprudence that the ECHR cannot be interpreted in a vacuum and must be interpreted in harmony with the general principles of international law.19 1.3. Statelessness and the right to respect for family and private life European Convention on Human Rights: Article 8 Article 8 ECHR protects the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence. Article 8 is engaged when one (or more) of the protected rights is identified and at issue, and there has been an interference or a failure to meet a positive obligation in relation to one or more of those rights. Any such interference or failure must 17 The CJEU has referred to the 1961 Convention in several cases. See e.g. CJEU, JY v. Wiener Landesregierung, Case C-118/20, 18 January 2022. 18 The ECtHR has referred to the 1954 Convention, see e.g. ECtHR, Sudita Keita v. Hungary (application no. 42321/15), 13 May 2020, and to the 1961 Convention, see e.g. ECtHR, Kurić and others v. Slovenia (application no. 26828/06), 26 June 2012; ECtHR, Emin Huseynov v. Azerbaijan (No. 2) (application no. 1/16), 13 July 2023, paragraphs 60-63. 19 Among other cases: ECtHR, Güzelyurtlu and Others v. Cyprus and Turkey [GC] (application no. 36925/07), 29 January 2019, paragraph 236; ECtHR, Demir and Baykara v. Turkey (application no. 34503/97), 12 November 2008, paragraph 67. This principle is equally found in other international human rights agreements. For instance, see UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 20 November 1989, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, Article 41. 6