Latvian judge re-elected to European Court of Human Rights

 

On 22 January, during the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Ineta Ziemele was re-elected as judge to the European Court of Human Rights for a six-year term.

Ms Ziemele has been sitting as a judge on the European Court of Human Rights since 27 April 2005. As in this position she was a replacement for former Judge Egils Levits, who had left the post before the end of his term, her term of office was due to expire by October 2007.

In accordance with Article 23 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, judges are elected for a period of six years.

The European Court of Human Rights is an institution of the Council of Europe. Judges are elected from among the candidates nominated by all 47 member states. Last year the European Court of Human Rights delivered 1503 judgments, including twelve judgments in cases against Latvia. In comparison, five judgments have been delivered in cases against Lithuania, and three in cases against Estonia. In eight out of the said twelve judgments, the Court held that there had been at least one breach of the Convention; in two judgments no violations were established, and in 2 cases the applications were struck from the Court's list of cases due to the fact that the situations of which the applicants had complained had been resolved. In the eight cases in which the Court had found infringements, most of those had been regarding the length of the pre-trial detention.

(end of text)