Standards of ECHR pursuant to Article 8 of the European Convention and the right to private life

On February 19, 2016, Kosovo Judicial Institute in cooperation with Thomson Foundation has conducted training on the topic "Standards of ECHR pursuant to Article 8 of the European Convention and the right to private life".

This training has aimed the advancement of knowledge about the constitutional and legal framework for the right to freedom of expression and the right to private life in Kosovo and to contribute in assessing the balance of the right to freedom of expression over the right to freedom in private life according to the ECHR’s practice.

Initially, in this training it was elaborated the local legal framework that covers this field as well as up to now practices at the Courts in Kosovo for cases of this nature, the circumstances of criminal prosecution on issues affecting the right to privacy, respecting of privacy in criminal proceedings as well privacy in correctional institutions.

Further on, there were treated the standards and practices of the European Court of Human Rights with the focus on Article 10 on the right to freedom of expression and Article 8 on the right to respect one’s private and family life of the ECHR. In this context there were discussed certain circumstances where the right to privacy may restrict the right to freedom of expression as well as the balancing of the right to freedom of expression over the right to freedom in private life, wherein there were elaborated the cases from the ECHR practice.

In the last part of this training, participants were divided into working groups and conducted a simulation of the trial at the European Court of Human Rights for a case study.

The beneficiaries of this training were judges and prosecutors of basic level, officials from the Constitutional Court, lawyers, officials from the Independent Media Commission, BIRN and KDI.