Candidates for Irish judge on ECtHR named

Candidates for Irish judge on ECtHR named

Judge Síofra O'Leary

Judge Fergal Gaynor, Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh and Professor Colm Ó Cinnéide have been named as the candidates to succeed Judge Síofra O’Leary on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will next month choose, by simple majority vote, one of the three candidates recommended by the Irish government for appointment to the post.

Judge Gaynor is a full-time international judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, as well as a reserve international co-prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). He is also an associate of Doughty Street Chambers.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh has served as an ordinary judge of Ireland’s Court of Appeal since November 2019, and previously as a judge of the High Court from 2016.

Professor Ó Cinnéide is a professor of constitutional and human rights law at University College London (UCL), a position he has held since 2015.

In 2022, Judge O’Leary became the first woman and the first Irish person to serve as president of the ECtHR. Her nine-year term as judge will end this year.

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