On the Specifics of Expanding the Content of Citizenship in Acts of the Council of Europe and the European Court’s Judicial Decisions of Human Rights

Following the Council of Europe’s statute, the member states must recognise the principle that all populations under their jurisdiction enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms. The important treaty within the Council of Europe —the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of November 4, 1950 —enshrines the minimum mandatory standards that meet modern European constitutionalism requirements. The Council of Europe’s activities were initially based on shared values, harmonising the member states’ law around common principles —democracy, the rule of law, and human rights protection. The European Convention was developed for closer cooperation of European states in the field of human rights protection, prevention of their violations by member states, and the establishment of European public order outside the framework of national systems. On this basis, provisions on the binding nature of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights were included in the Convention. The Contracting Parties were obliged to comply with the Dispute Court’s final judgments to which they act as parties. The institution of citizenship is closely related to human rights. In this regard, the Council of Europe, through additional Protocol No4 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the European Convention on Citizenship of November 6, 1997, and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, gives newly expanded content citizenship. Simultaneously, the ECHR attaches great importance to the legal regulation of citizenship deprivation and forced expulsion, citizenship in mixed marriages, and children’s citizenship.