27/01/2009 Session
PACE, which elects judges to the European Court of Human Rights from lists of three candidates designated by the States Parties, stressed the importance of national selection procedures that guarantee and increase the quality, efficiency and authority of the Court.
In line with the conclusions of the rapporteur for the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Christopher Chope (United Kingdom, EDG), PACE asked the governments of the member states to issue public and open calls for candidatures, to describe the manner in which candidates have been selected, to transmit the names of candidates to the Assembly in alphabetical order, to ensure that candidates have an active knowledge of one official language of the Council of Europe and a passive knowledge of the other, and if possible, not to submit any candidates whose election might result in the need to appoint an ad hoc judge.
The Assembly also strongly urged “the governments of member states which have still not done so, to set up – without delay – appropriate national selection procedures to ensure that the authority and credibility of the European Court of Human Rights are not put at risk by ad hoc and politicised processes in the nomination of candidates”.