Who Will Be New Judge from Azerbaijan to ECHR?

A new judge of the European Court of Human Rights from Azerbaijan can be a member of the Constitutional Court of the country 45-year-old Rovshan Ismayilov. His candidacy has already been submitted to Strasbourg, an informed source in the Council of Europe told Turan.

Election of the judge from Azerbaijan to the ECHR is to be held at the PACE summer session in June. New elections are held in connection with the expiration of the two terms of office of the judge Khanlar Hajiyev. PACE deputies will choose one candidate from the three judges submitted by Azerbaijan.

In all likelihood, they will support the candidacy of Ismayilov, who has experience in the Council of Europe structures like GRECO Expert (committee for the fight against corruption), Commission against Racism and Intolerance and the Moneyval (an expert group on combating money laundering).

In Azerbaijan Ismayilov is known as a specialist in the theory of law. At the same time, he never worked in law enforcement or the general courts and came to the Constitutional Court from the scientific and educational spheres (BSU Department of Constitutional Law).

One of the criteria for election of judges of the ECHR is the candidate's reputation as a specialist and the absence of political bias.

It should be noted that in October last year, the PACE did not support any of the three candidates proposed by Azerbaijan - chief of the Human Rights Sector of the Presidential Administration, the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the European Court Chingiz Asgarov, the judge of the Baku Court of Appeal Aygun Abdullayeva and the judge of the Baku Administrative Economic Court No 1 Vusala Bakhyshova.   -B06--