A Comparative Study of the Protection of the Right to Privacy in International Human Rights Law and Selected Legal Systems

The right to privacy has become a central issue in international human rights law due to rapid technological development and expanding global data flows. Despite formal recognition in instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, significant divergence exists in its interpretation and implementation across jurisdictions. This comparative legal study examines how different legal systems conceptualize and protect the right to privacy, focusing on the European Union and the United States. Employing a qualitative research design grounded in doctrinal and document analysis, this study systematically examines primary legal sources including the UDHR, ICCPR, GDPR, and ECHR, alongside scholarly literature. The findings reveal that the European Union adopts a comprehensive, dignity-based regulatory framework through the GDPR, establishing extensive data subject rights and centralized enforcement mechanisms. In contrast, the United States follows a fragmented, liberty-based approach characterized by sector-specific legislation and judicial interpretation, emphasizing limited government intervention. These structural differences extend to cross-border data transfers, where the EU imposes strict adequacy requirements while the US relies on contractual and self-regulatory mechanisms. The study develops a conceptual model demonstrating that privacy protection outcomes are determined by three core variables: normative foundation (dignity versus liberty), regulatory structure (centralized versus decentralized), and enforcement mechanism (preventive versus reactive). This model explains the persistent divergence between EU and US privacy regimes despite shared recognition of privacy as a fundamental human right in international law. The findings contribute to understanding the fragmentation of global privacy governance and highlight challenges in achieving uniform protection standards across jurisdictions. This research underscores the need for continued dialogue between different legal traditions to address the complexities of privacy protection in an increasingly interconnected digital world.

کلیدواژه ها:

Right to privacy ، international human rights law ، General Data Protection Regulation ، comparative legal analysis