The development of State's Positive obligations under articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

• Author: Jakub Czepek
• Pages: 513-526

513

JAKUB CZEPEK*

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE’S POSITIVE OBLIGATIONS

UNDER ARTICLES 2 AND 3

OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Introduction

Positive obligations always oblige to act, to take actions. They are

opposed to negative obligations, which concern abstaining from taking

actions in order to evade violation of one’s right or freedom.

Originally, State’s positive obligations were linked to the protection

of the rights of second generation – economic, social and cultural rights1.

States were obliged to take actions to guarantee the enjoyment of these

rights. To guarantee, for example the right to work.

First generation rights – civil and political rights (such as right to

life, freedom of torture, right to privacy) were to be guaranteed by

fulfilling states negative obligations. The state was protecting these rights

by its non-interference.

That was in the very beginning of development of human rights. It

became obvious that even first generation rights require taking actions in

order to make them “practical and effective”.

The “discovery” of positive obligations in first generation of human

rights was made by European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) very early.

According to F.Sudre, the Court has referred to positive obligations for

the first time in belgian linguistic case of 23 july 19682. Later, the Court

referred to positive obligations in the case of X. and Y. v. The Netherlands

of 26 march 1985.

* Uniwersytet Warmisko-MazurskiW Olsztynie.

1 Rights such as right to work or the right to just conditions of work.

2 F. SUDRE, Les „obligations positives” dans la jurisprudence européenne des droits

de l’homme, P. MAHONEY, F. MATSCHER, H. PETZOLD, L. WILDHABER (eds.), Protection

des droits de l’homme: la perspective européenne. Mélanges a la mémoire de R. Ryssdal,

Köln-Berlin-Bonn-München 2000, p. 1359; also P. VAN DIJK, “Positive obligations”

Implied in the European Convention on human rights: Are the states still the “Masters”

of the Convention?, M. CASTERMANS-HOLLEMAN, F. VAN HOOF, J. SMITH (eds.), The Role

of Nation-State in the 21st Century, Human Rights, International Organisations and

Foreign Policy. Essays in Honour of Peter Baehr, The Hague-Boston-London 1998, s.18-

19; also C. MIK, Teoria obowizków pozytywnych Pastw-Stron traktatów w dziedzinie

praw człowieka na przykładzie Europejskiej Konwencji Praw Człowieka, J. BIAŁOCERKIEWICZ,

M. BALCERZAK (eds.), Ksiga Pamitkowa Profesora Tadeusza Jasudowicza, Toru

2004, p. 260.