The Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) of the Council of Europe has recommended Darian Pavli to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to be voted as the next Albanian judge at the ECtHR, succeeding the current judge Ledi Bianku, whose term has ended.
The Committee, chaired by Valeriu Ghiletchi from Moldova and consisting of 20 members interviewed the three candidates, Sokol Berberi, Darian Pavli, and Mariana Semini on September 28.
Pavli’s candidacy will be voted on during the next session of the Parliamentary Assembly, October 8–12.
Pavli was born in 1975 in Vlora and has a double master’s degree in Law in Comparative Constitutional Law from the Central European University and Public Service Law from New York University Law School.
According to the CV submitted to the CoE, Pavli has extensive experience as litigator, but not as judge. In recent years, he has worked as legal expert at the Open Society Foundation – Soros and is currently senior legal expert at EURALIUS V, the legal assistance mission funded by the European Commission.
The nomination process of the three candidates has been controversial, as the Albanian government claimed to have vetted all three candidates, even though none of them actually passed the vetting procedure. Since August 2016, this has been the third attempt attempt of the Rama government to produced an eligible candidate judge for the ECtHR.
