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Election of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Progress report | Doc. 15885 Add. 2 rev | 18 December 2023

Author(s):
Bureau of the Assembly

Report by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human RightsNote

1. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights met in Paris on 1 December 2023 at 9.30am in order to hold a hearing of the candidates to the post of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
2. The list of candidates was transmitted to the Parliamentary Assembly by the Committee of Ministers on 24 November 2023.Note It contained the following names in alphabetical order:
  • Ms Meglena KUNEVA (Bulgaria)
  • Mr Manfred NOWAK (Austria)
  • Mr Michael O’FLAHERTY (Ireland)
3. The committee interviewed the three candidates, in the above order. It granted each of the candidates a forty-five-minute interview. The committee then discussed its impressions of the candidates taking into account their applications and the interviews, in light of the requirements for the post following from the Commissioner’s tasks defined in Committee of Ministers Resolution 99(50).
4. On this basis, the committee, whilst considering that all three candidates were fully qualified to fulfil the requirements of the office of Commissioner for Human Rights, established the following order of preference amongst the candidates, with a narrow majority in favour of the first candidate over the second:

1 Mr Michael O’FLAHERTY
2 Mr Manfred NOWAK
3 Ms Meglena KUNEVA