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). Issues related to judges of the European Court of Human Rights were one area of work of the Committee of experts on the system of the ECHR (DH-SYSC), which operated under the authority of CDDH.

In this framework, the Group on issues related to judges of the European Court of Human Rights (DH-SYSC-JC) was instructed to prepare 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 was chaired by Mr Hans-Jörg BEHRENS (Germany) and its member States were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.

On the basis of the work carried out by DH-SYSC-JC, the CDDH adopted the Report on issues related to the judges of the European Court of Human Rights. The Committee of Ministers took note of the report and invited their Rapporteur Group on Human Rights (GR-H) to prepare a draft declaration on the protection of judges from threats and reprisals, and on recognition of service as a judge of the Court.

Meetings