68 Candidates File for Vacant ECHR Judge Position

The Ministry of Justice closed the call for applications for a vacant position of the Georgia-nominated judge to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Ministry stated on April 18.

Three candidates will be chosen for nomination by the Government of Georgia from the pool of five candidates, who will be shortlisted by the 13-member state commission under the Ministry of Justice.

The application process was launched on February 21, at the request of the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights, a special committee of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, which rejected the three Georgia-nominated candidates to ECHR on January 24, citing lack of qualifications.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights rules on individual or state applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The judges are elected by the CoE Parliamentary Assembly from lists of three candidates proposed by each member state for a non-renewable term of nine years. The tenure of Nona Tsotsoria, previous Georgia-nominated ECHR judge, expired in January 2017.