IMU Law Faculty member Asst.Prof.Dr. Sezen Kama IŞIK’s article on ‘Private Life in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Effect of the Concept on Subsequent Human Rights Documents’ was published in the Journal of Sakarya University Faculty of Law in July 2022.
IŞIK, stated that fundamental rights and freedoms generally exist primarily in the constitutions of states, and they mature over time and find their place in the international arena. Private life, on the other hand, started to be protected firstly in the international arena and then constitutionally in the domestic law of the states. It should be noted that for the right to private life, the systematic of the UDHR has put international protection ahead of national protection.
According to IŞIK, in accordance with the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which is a universal regulation after the UDHR, and in line with the basic jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, private life includes concepts such as sexual identity, sexual orientation and sexual life, a person’s name, choosing and changing one’s name, and communication between detainees and convicts. .
The scope of private life, which is included in Article 8 of the ECHR, which is a regional document, is expanding day by day and gives the right to be an umbrella (inclusive) right. The ECtHR deals with important topics such as name, surname, professional life with a special relationship, monitoring with tracking devices, medical intervention, euthanasia, reproductive rights, violence against women, abuse of children, environmental pollution, and sexual identity within the framework of private life.
According to IŞIK, the development in Turkish law has not been much different. Although the 1982 Constitution deals with the rights protected in Article 12 of the UDHR in more than one article, it is seen that the Constitutional Court evaluates topics such as physical and psychological wellbeing of the person, name, sexual identity, medical intervention, violence, mobbing, professional activities, environmental pollution, personal data, personal development within the framework of private life.
According to IŞIK, as a result, article 12 of the Declaration has led to the continuous development of the concept of private life at the universal, regional and local level. Therefore, it can be said that the fact that the reflection and protection of the developments in information technologies in the theory of human rights is possible within the framework of private life reveals the importance of the impact of the Declaration on the universal level.