Thursday 28 January 2021

PACE Elects New Judges of the Strasbourg Court

On 26 January 2021, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has elected two new judges of the European Court of Human Rights. Andreas Zünd was elected in respect of Switzerland and Ioannis Ktistakis in respect of Greece. Both judges obtained an absolute majority of votes cast. ECtHR judges are elected for a single term of office of nine years.
 
Judge Andreas Zünd comes from the judiciary. He worked as a law clerk and later as a judge at different court levels. Most recently, he was a judge at the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. Ioannis Ktistakis comes from academia. He was Associate Professor at Democritus University of Thrace. In addition, he was involved in a large number of cases before the Strasbourg Court, including in Makaratzis v. Greece, Sitaropoulos and Giakoumopoulos v. Greece, and Molla Sali v. Greece.
 
By end of this year, the composition of the Court will change significantly as the term of many current judges is coming to an end. Between April and June 2021, PACE is envisaged to elect new judges in respect of Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia.

PACE elects new judges from a list of three candidates nominated by States party to the ECHR. Since 2015, the three persons nominated by States Parties to the ECtHR are firstly scrutinised by PACE's Committee on the Election of Judges
.