By Gevorg Tosunyan
Armenia’s selection process for its next European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judge continues to face scrutiny, with concerns ranging from dual citizenship restrictions to a lack of transparency in the evaluation procedures. The ECHR judge selection committee is scheduled to interview Armenia’s candidates on January 13, 2025.
The current list of candidates includes Vahe Grigoryan, Nora Karapetyan, and Anna Margaryan. This roster represents a change from the original lineup following the withdrawal of Vigen Kocharyan, who has been appointed as a judge to Armenia’s Court of Cassation.
Read more: Armenia faces transparency concerns in ECHR judge selection
The selection process unfolds in two distinct phases. During the national selection phase, each member state nominates three candidates. This is followed by a supranational selection phase where the ECHR selection committee evaluates both the fairness of the national procedure and the candidates themselves through personal interviews.
In a notable departure from international practice, the Armenian government has implemented stricter requirements for ECHR judge candidates than those applied to domestic positions, including the presidency and parliament. The new rules require candidates to have been Armenian citizens for the past ten years, effectively excluding dual citizens. This restriction appears particularly stringent when compared to international precedents. For instance, Tim Eicke, representing the United Kingdom in the ECHR, holds both British and German citizenship. Historical examples include Kristina Pardalos, a U.S. citizen who represented San Marino until 2018.
Several other issues have emerged regarding the transparency of the selection process. Most members of the selection committee are government officials affiliated with the ruling party. The commission notably lacks academic representation, and the replacement of the Union of Judges with the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office (HCAVO) has been questioned. The criteria for selecting HCAVO from the CSO sector are also unclear.
The commission’s evaluation procedures have also drawn significant criticism. They maintain secrecy around evaluation results and have demonstrated inconsistent interviewing approaches with different candidates. Questions sometimes stray beyond established evaluation criteria into politics. Additionally, the commission has failed to publish candidates’ CVs, contrary to both ECHR practice and domestic Armenian procedures.
The circumstances surrounding Vigen Kocharyan’s replacement by Anna Margaryan have also drawn attention. While officially attributed to Kocharyan’s withdrawal, documents indicate his candidacy was rejected based on a negative assessment from the Council of Europe’s advisory committee.
The selection process carries significant implications for Armenia’s representation at the ECHR, particularly given that the position has been vacant since Judge Armen Harutyunyan’s term ended on September 30, 2024.
Despite the significance of this appointment, Armenia’s civil society has shown limited engagement with the selection process, with only a few organizations, such as International and Comparative Law Center NGO, conducting thorough analyses of the procedure.
The ECHR judge selection committee’s upcoming interviews in January 2025 may prove crucial in determining whether Armenia will need to present a new list of candidates, particularly given the concerns about the national selection procedure’s fairness and transparency.
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