Right to Life

The right to life means that the state must not arbitrarily take a person’s life and must take reasonable measures to protect life when there is a serious and known danger.

This right does not only mean a prohibition on killing by the state. It also includes the duty of institutions to respond when someone is exposed to violence, threats, dangerous conditions, abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence, or other situations in which life is genuinely at risk.

This right matters because without the protection of life, all other rights lose their meaning. Freedom of expression, the right to work, education, privacy, or a fair trial mean little if the state does not protect the very basis of human existence.

The right to life also matters because it shows how power responds to the most serious situations: violence, death, danger, negligence, and institutional silence. When the state knows that someone’s life is at risk and fails to act, the problem is no longer only an individual tragedy. It becomes a question of systemic accountability.

This right can be seen when the state must respond to serious threats to someone’s life, domestic violence, dangerous working conditions, human trafficking, abuse, deaths in detention, police violence, or situations where someone is clearly exposed to danger.

It is also visible when institutions know that a risk exists but fail to act in time. For example, when threats are reported but protection does not follow. When workers are placed in conditions that can clearly lead to death. When a person in detention or prison does not receive necessary medical care. When a victim of violence asks for protection, but the system sends them back into danger.

The right to life is not only about the moment of death. It appears much earlier, in whether institutions take risk seriously while there is still time to save a life.

The legal basis of the right to life can be found in constitutional guarantees, criminal law, and international human rights documents. This right obliges the state not to take life arbitrarily, but also to protect life when there is a serious danger that institutions can prevent.

In practice, the legal basis includes protection from violence, the prohibition of unlawful use of force, the duty to conduct an effective investigation when a death occurs in suspicious circumstances, and state responsibility when institutions fail to act despite knowing about a serious risk.

In Serbia, the right to life is protected by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, criminal law, and laws regulating the work of the police, prosecution, courts, healthcare institutions, prisons, and other institutions that may be relevant when someone’s life is at risk.

This right obliges the state to protect people from violence, unlawful use of force, serious threats, dangerous conditions, and situations in which institutions know that there is a risk to life. When a death occurs in suspicious circumstances, the state has a duty to conduct a serious and effective investigation, not merely a formal procedure without real accountability.

At the international level, the right to life is protected by the most important human rights documents. It is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the European human rights system, the right to life does not only mean that the state must not arbitrarily take life. It also includes the state’s duty to protect life when it knows that a real danger exists, as well as the duty to conduct a serious, independent, and effective investigation when a death occurs in suspicious circumstances.