FEATURES OF JUDICIAL PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENS IN THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

The research is dedicated to the issue of the opportunity to apply to the European Court of Human Rights for the protection of environmental rights. The relevance of the study is explained by the fact that the global environmental crisis raises the issue of ensuring the human right to a safe environment and its protection. The necessity of conducting a separate study on this issue arose since the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, defining the rights it guarantees, does not separately allocate environmental rights. That is why the question logically emerges: can individuals apply to the European Court of Human Rights to protect a right that is not specifically mentioned in the Convention. The purpose of the study is to explore the legal framework and grounds for applications to the European Court of Human Rights. In the process of the research, legislative acts, international legal acts, and the activities of the European Court of Human Rights, which purpose is to protect, in particular, environmental human rights, were analysed. The methodological foundation of the study was established by the Aristotelian method, methods of analysis and synthesis and comparative legal method. The study explores both general theoretical aspects related to the protection of environmental rights and analyses the practice of courts in protecting environmental rights, particularly at the international level. The study established that the European Court of Human Rights admits applications from individuals for the protection of violated environmental rights, which it considers through the prism of Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – the right to respect for private, family life and the home of individuals. The practical value of the study lies in the fact that the research analyses national and international law and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and provide conclusions that identify specific problems related to environmental protection activities and proposes specific mechanisms for overcoming them to avoid violations of citizens’ environmental rights.