Προστασία των δικαιωμάτων του παιδιού σε διεθνές και ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο
Children and the European Court of Human Rights
The protection of children is by no means the sole objective of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. However, through the interpretation of the Articles of this Convention and its judgements, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) effectively defends the rights of children in critical and complex situations relating to, for example, family life, privacy, illegal immigration, juvenile delinquency and education.
It should be noted that any child can appeal directly to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), as the conditions for bringing such actions are not always covered by the rules of national law regarding legal capacity. Indeed, there are many cases in which children have taken advantage of this right and appealed to the Strasbourg Court. Very often, of course, it is the parents that appeal to the ECtHR in individual child-related cases, either alone or together with their child, and either on their own behalf or their child’s.
All case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning children is listed in the Theseus database, which was set up as part of the Council of Europe’s “Building a Europe for and with children“programme.
The case of Greece
The protection of the rights of the child under the European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is not generally ingrained into people’s conscience in Greece. As a result, the number of individual appeals against the Greek state to the court in Strasbourg involving children is, so far, very small. For this reason, there are not many convictions against Greece in this field. However, those that do exist do not lack interest.
In particular, these decisions relate to:
- the expulsion for life from Greece of an expatriate from the Northern Epirus region of Albania, who is the father of a 6-year-old boy of Greek nationality and who was convicted of violating the Drugs Act (Kolonja v Greece, 19 May 2016)
- the rights of underage foreigners detained prior to their deportation (Aarabi v Greece, 2 April 2015, Mohamad v Greece, 11 December 2014, Housein v Greece, 24 October 2013, Barjamaj v Greece, 2 May 2013, Mahmundi and others v Greece, 31 July 2012, Rahimi v. Greece, 5 April 2011, Bubullima v. Greece, 28 October 2010),
- the inhumane and degrading treatment of a Roma minor by the police (Case of Stefanou, 22 April 2010),
- the right to contact of divorced parents and issues relating to post-divorce custody (Fourkiotis16 June 2016, Syngelidis, 11 February 2010, Tsourlakis, 15 October 2009, Kosmopoulou, 5 February 2004),
- the right of children to education (Memlika, 6 October 2015, Lavida, 30 May 2013, Sampani, 11 December 2012, Sampanis, 5 June 2008, Efstratiou, 18 December 1996, Valsamis, 18 December 1996),
- the right to respect the privacy of a newborn (Reklos και Davourlis, 15 January 2009).
About Us
The Network for Children’s Rights acquired non-profit organisation status in 2004, but actually began as an informal action group four years earlier with the aim of raising awareness of problems relating to the righs of children and interceding in order to solve them. It encourages initiatives and actions to ensure that the UN International Convention on the Rights of the Child is implemented in Greece, to guarantee respect for diversity and to put an end to discrimination.
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