Turkish judge elected as vice president of ECHR

STRASBOURG

The European Court of Human Rights has elected two new vice-presidents: Işıl Karakaş from Turkey and András Sajó from Hungary. They have both been elected for a three-year term and will take up their respective duties on Nov. 1.

The Court also elected Sept. 21 Guido Raimondi from Italy as its new president. He will also take office Nov. 1. The president was elected by secret ballot by the plenary court. Raimondi succeeds Dean Spielmann from Luxembourg, whose mandate will come to an end Oct. 31.

The court is composed of one judge in respect to each of the 47 states which have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. Judges work in five sections from which chambers of seven judges are constituted. The court also sits as a grand chamber of 17 judges. The court has two vice-presidents, both of whom also preside over sections, the other three sections each having a section president.

Judge Karakaş, born Dec. 8, 1958, in Istanbul, worked as director of the Research and Documentation Centre on Europe at Galatasaray University between 2002 and 2008. She became the head of the Department of Public International Law and Faculty of Law at the same university 2003-2008. She was also a visiting professor at the universities of Aix-Marseille III, Reims, Montpellier II and Strasbourg Robert Schuman. She has been a judge at the ECHR since May 1, 2008, where she was a vice president section from Nov. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2014

She has been a section president since Jan. 1, 2015.