| Abstract [eng] |
This thesis critically examines the extent to which the ECHR can provide effective protection of the right to housing in the context of the contemporary European housing crisis affecting Council of Europe states. Employing doctrinal, comparative, empirical and contextual methods, the research analyses the normative frameworks of the ECHR, the ICCPR, and the RESC, alongside their interpretation in international practice. The research demonstrates that the right to housing is well developed in international human rights law, encompassing access, occupancy and exit dimensions, and grounded in the principles of minimum core obligations and progressive realization. In contrast, within the ECHR system, the right to housing has not emerged as an autonomous right but is protected indirectly, primarily through Art. 8 and Art. 1 of Prot. 1. The analysis of the case law of the ECtHR reveals that protection remains fragmented and predominantly focused on negative obligations, while positive obligations are recognised only in limited circumstances where a sufficiently close link to private life is established. This approach constrains the ECtHR’s ability to address structural and systemic housing challenges. The thesis concludes that, despite existing interpretative limits, the ECHR framework retains the capacity to accommodate certain socio-economic dimensions of housing protection. Through evolutive interpretation, justified by the principles of effectiveness and the indivisibility of rights, and supported by international consensus, the right to housing may be further developed without altering the fundamentally civil and political nature of the ECHR. |
