All-Female Candidate List Put Forward For Maltese Human Rights Judge Role At ECHR
Three women are the Government’s candidates to replace Judge Vincent de Gaetano at the European Court of Human Rights.
This is the first time the government has put forward an all-female list, with the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly expecting that at least one of the nominees should be from the opposite sex, with a third of the Court judges being women.
In 2009, the candidature list put forward by the Maltese government was rejected on three separate occasions because none of the candidates was a woman.
In a statement, the Justice Ministry announced that lawyer Victoria Buttigieg and judges Abigail Lofaro and Lorraine Schembri Orland would be up for the role after the tenure of Judge de Gaetano ends in September
The candidates were selected following a public call.
A selection process will now begin with the entities concerned, including a number of resolutions of the European Council’s Committee of Ministers, for a Maltese judge to be appointed.
The candidate who receives an absolute majority of votes by the Parliamentary Assembly is elected as the Maltese judge to sit on the court.
READ NEXT: Matthew Caruana Galizia Calls For European FBI As He Outlines Malta’s ‘Organised Criminal Conspiracy’
