Procedure for decisions by committees relating to candidates eligible for election by the Assembly
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 29 May 2006 (see Doc. 10864, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities, rapporteur: Mr John Greenway).
- Thesaurus
1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls that before it elects judges to the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, its competent bodies interview the candidates for these posts.
2. Following these interviews, the candidates are ranked and sometimes, when there is no consensus, a vote may have to be taken. Recently problems have arisen concerning the procedure to be followed for such votes.
3. The Assembly notes that, in the absence of explicit provisions, different interpretations are possible of the existing rules with respect to the voting procedure for decisions related to such candidates.
4. The Assembly considers that, in order to clarify the situation, it would be preferable to specify in Rule 46 of the Rules of Procedure that for all decisions in committees relating to persons, voting shall take place by secret ballot. This should also apply to any votes in the Bureau concerning persons.
5. Therefore the Assembly decides:
5.1 to insert in Rule 46.2 a new sentence after the second sentence worded as follows: “For decisions relating to persons, voting shall take place by secret ballot.”;
5.2 that the new provision shall enter into force on the adoption of the present resolution.
