Serbian opposition MP MarinikaTepic said on Thursday that none of the judges nominated for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by the Serbian government had been elected.
“All of Serbia’s candidates for election to that prestigious court have been rejected – because none of our judges meets the conditions,” Tepic said in an X post.
She added that “Serbia has been shamed before the international human rights court. The nominations include Serbian Constitutional Court judges. How is it that they meet the conditions for the country’s highest court and not for the ECHR?” she wrote.
Tepic published a picture of a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) document which said that the Committee for the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights recommended that PACE reject the list of candidates submitted by the Serbian government “as candidates do not fulfil the requirements of Article 21 of the European Convention on Human Rights for election as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights and to request the Government of Serbia to submit a new list of candidates”.
The Serbian government nominated judges Vladimir Marinkov, Natasa Plavsic and Branko Rakic.
Article 21 of the European Convention on Human Rights (that specifically relates to the election of judges to the ECHR) specifies the following:
“1. The judges shall be of high moral character and must either possess the qualifications required for appointment to high judicial office or be jurisconsults of recognised competence.
2. Candidates shall be less than 65 years of age at the date by which the list of three candidates has been requested by the Parliamentary Assembly, further to Article 22.
3. The judges shall sit on the Court in their individual capacity.
4. During their term of office, the judges shall not engage in any activity which is incompatible with their independence, impartiality or with the demands of a full-time office; all questions arising from the application of this paragraph shall be decided by the Court.”
(021.rs, 06.10.2023)
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