Candidates for the European Court of
Human Rights
Doc. 10377
20 December 2004
Motion for a resolution
presented by Mr McNamara and others
This motion has not been discussed in the
Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it
The Assembly, in its
Resolution 1366 (2004) and
its Recommendation 1649 (2004)
on Candidates for the European Court of Human Rights, has rightly placed
great emphasis on the importance of gender balance in the composition of the
Court. It has called upon the Committee of Ministers to address the problem
of the current gender imbalance and has itself taken the following decision
in the above-mentioned Resolution:
“3. The Assembly decides not to consider
lists of candidates where:
(..)
ii. the list does not include at least one
candidate of each sex”.
This decision was obviously taken with the
unfortunate experience in mind of all-male lists of candidates submitted to
the Assembly by certain High Contracting Parties to the Convention. The
Assembly has rightly refused to consider such lists, as they make it simply
impossible to achieve a gender balance in the composition of the Court, where
women remain clearly under-represented for the time being.
However, the absolute wording of the
decision quoted above would in effect also exclude consideration of an
all-female list of candidates (a list otherwise meeting the criteria set by
the Assembly). Although such an effect was not necessarily intended, the
Assembly would be obliged to reject such a list, even if it would obviously
contribute to achieving the underlying purpose of the decision: to achieve a
more balanced representation of both sexes on the Court.
Accordingly, the Assembly should modify its
decision as follows in order to create a specific and gender-neutral exception
which refers to the general 40% parity threshold agreed by the Committee of
Ministers and accepted by the Assembly itself in paragraph 4 (iv) of its
above-mentioned Resolution:
“The Assembly decides not to consider
lists of candidates where:
(…)
ii. the list does not includ at least one
candidate of each sex, except where the candidates belong to a sex which is
under-represented on the Court, the latter being understood as comprising
less than 40 % of the total number of judges”.
Signed
[1]:
McNAMARA, Kevin, United Kingdom, SOC
AZEVEDO, Maria Eduarda, Portugal, EPP/CD
BEMELMANS-VIDEC, Marie-Louise, Netherlands, EPP/CD
CILEVICS, Boriss, Latvia, SOC
CLIVETI, Minodora, Romania, SOC
CURDOV�, Anna, Czech Republic, SOC
ERR, Lydie, Luxembourg, SOC
FOULKES, George, United Kingdom, SOC
H�GG, Carina, Sweden, SOC
HAJIYEVA, Gultakin, Azerbaijan, EPP/CD
KONGLEVOLL, Synn�ve, Norway, SOC
LLOYD, Tony, United Kingdom, SOC
McCAFFERTY, Christine, United Kingdom, SOC
RUPPRECHT, Marlene, Germany, SOC
VERMOT-MANGOLD, Ruth-Gaby, Switzerland, SOC
ZAPFL-HELBLING, Rosmarie, Switzerland, EPP/CD
|
[1] |
SOC
EPP
EDG
LDR
UEL
NR |
Socialist Group
Group of the European People’s Party
European Democratic Group
Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’
Group
Group of the Unified European Left
Not registered in a group
|