CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN THE PRACTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

Although the rights of the child as a separate category do not exist in the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, there are numerous cases in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in which the Court dealt with these rights, and based on the application of the articles of the Convention that regulate the right to life, prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, prohibition of slavery and forced labor, right to fair trial, right to family life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, right to education and prohibition of discrimination. It can be seen from the presented practice that, thanks to the principle of universality in terms of the circle of persons who can apply to the European Court, children appear before this Court as the subject of proceedings, and not as an object of protection. The paper analyzes some of the cases concerning the rights of the child, in which the European Court took certain positions as standards of conduct. It is also evident from the analyzed practice that the Court, guided by the fact that this is one of the most vulnerable categories of any society, applied not only the European Convention in each of those cases, but also all available instruments for the protection of children's rights at the international level.