10. Deprivation thus includes measures which can be equated with deprivation of
possessions or which detract from the substance of ownership to such an
extent that they are equivalent to expropriation.997
11. The right to property is connected to the right to housing. Therefore evictions
may amount to a violation of this right.998
Compensation
12. Some, but not all, of the human rights treaties provide for a right to
compensation in the event of deprivation of property.999 However, this has been
seen by international and regional treaty bodies as a necessary corollary of the
right.1000 The payment of compensation will in principle justify depriving people
of property rights. The European Court has set out some relevant rules in
respect of the amount of compensation that should be paid, holding that the
taking of property without payment of an amount reasonably related to its value
will normally constitute a disproportionate interference.1001 It is the market value
or ‘an amount reasonably related to its value’ which should determine the
amount of compensation to be paid.
997
European Court, Hentrich v France, 22 September 1994.
E.g. Communication nos. 54/91, 61/91, 98/93, 164/97 à 196/97 and 210/98, Malawi African
Association and Others v. Mauritania, 11 May 2000. Dogan and others v Turkey, 18 November 2004.
999
E.g. the African Charter, Article 21 provides for such, but the ECHR Protocol 1 does not.
1000
Inter-American Court, Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua, Judgment of 31
August 2001, para 153; European Court, James and others v. The United Kingdom, Application no.
8793/79, Judgment of 21 February 1986, para 54.
1001
European Court, Lithgow and Others v. the United Kingdom, 8 July 1986.
998
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