human-rights-act/article-8-right-private-and-family-li

https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights

https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/what-are-human-rights/human-rights-act/article-8-right-private-and-family-life

Article 8 Right to a private and family life

Everyone has the right to respect for his of her private and family life, home and correspondence. This right is subject to proportionate and lawful restrictions.

Article 8 is a broad-ranging right that is often closely connected with other rights such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to respect for property.

The obligation on the State under Article 8 is to refrain from interfering with the right itself and also to take some positive measures, for example, to criminalise extreme breaches of the right to a private life by private individuals.

Private life

The concept of a right to a private life encompasses the importance of personal dignity and autonomy and the interaction a person has with others, both in private or in public.

Respect for one’s private life includes:

respect for individual sexuality (so, for example, investigations into the sexuality of members of the armed forces engages the right to respect for a private life);
the right to personal autonomy and physical and psychological integrity, i.e. the right not to be physically interfered with;
respect for private and confidential information, particularly the storing and sharing of such information;
the right not to be subject to unlawful state surveillance;
respect for privacy when one has a reasonable expectation of privacy; and
the right to control the dissemination of information about one’s private life, including photographs taken covertly.