Vasilka Sancin appointed judge at Strasbourg court

Vasilka Sancin, an international law expert, will succeed Marko Bošnjak as Slovenia's judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg as his nine-year term ends in May, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Sancin, 45, was elected by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly on 28 January. She was endorsed by 125 out of 171 members of the assembly who cast their vote; 170 votes were valid.

Sancin is a professor of international law at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law, head of the Institute of International Law and International Relations, and a member of the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

She has been a substitute judge on the ECHR since 2022, while she served as a member and deputy chair of the UN Human Rights Committee for three years prior to that.

She is also an arbitrator and a member of the Geneva-based OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, and head of the Slovenian branch of the International Law Association.

Climate change, AI among key challenges

Commenting on her appointment for the Slovenian Press Agency, Sancin said the court recognised the need for expertise in international human rights law and international law in the broader sense.

She finds this is understandable given different events affecting human rights in Europe in the increasingly globalised world.

Asked about the challenges, she said respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms was "not as self-evident as we might all like it to be".

She listed climate change, development of new technologies, and artificial intelligence as major topics during her term. "All these are areas I have dealt with extensively in my academic career and I will definitely be able to contribute in this context."

One of three Slovenian candidates

One of three candidates put forward by Slovenia, Sancin was picked as the most qualified candidate by the relevant committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly after it interviewed all three of them.

The other two candidates were Aleš Galič, like Sancin a professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law, and Boštjan Zalar, a judge at the Administrative Court.

All three also serve as substitute ECHR judges to step in for the Slovenian judge when he cannot take part in the court's deliberations for various reasons.

ECHR judges are appointed for a single nine-year term without the possibility of extension. Each state signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights has one judge. After Russia's exit, there are now 46 of them.

Bošnjak has been serving as the Slovenian judge at the court since 2016. He has been the court's president since 2 July 2024.