Year
2010
Volume
4
Number
2
Page
241
Language
English
Court
Reference
L. PERONI, “Challenging Culturally Dominant Conceptions in Human Rights Law: The Cases of Property and Family”, HRILD 2010, nr. 2, 241-264
Recapitulation
Dominant interpretations of human rights in the West have been increasingly challenged before the European Court of Human Rights by a range of actors, including immigrants and Europeans from immigrant origins as part of their quest for inclusion in their host societies. Cultural concepts from well-established minorities like the Roma and from other groups from the East of Europe have been similarly seeking their way through the Court’s case-law following the entry of nearly twenty new member states in the Council of Europe over the past two decades. Thus, affective and traditional dimensions of family and marriage have sought incorporation into the content of article 8 (respect for family life) and article 12 (right to marry) of the European Convention of Human Rights.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been presented with analogous challenges from indigenous groups in the framework of article 21 (right to property) of the American Convention on Human Rights. Hence, cultural and spiritual dimensions of property have searched inclusion into the content and scope of article 21.
Using the examples of the European and the Inter-American Courts, this Article examines the meanings given to the notions of property and family in human rights law by the actors involved in their interpretation. First, it looks at the conceptions articulated by indigenous and tribal peoples under the right to property in the Inter- American System as well as at the notions advanced by ethnic minorities under the right to respect for family life in the European System. Then, the Article takes up a critical examination of both regional courts’ responses to applicants’ claims.