Improving the effectiveness of the control mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a permanent priority of the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH). In the framework of its mandate for the period 2022-2025, the CDDH created a drafting Group on issues related to judges of the European Court of Human Rights (DH-SYSC-JC).

The Group is instructed to prepare, under the authority of the Committee of experts on the system of the ECHR (DH-SYSC), a report evaluating the effectiveness of the system for the selection and election of the Court’s judges and the means to ensure due recognition for judges’ status and service on the Court and providing additional safeguards to preserve their independence and impartiality.

DH-SYSC-JC is chaired by Mr Hans-Jörg BEHRENS (Germany). Its member States are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.