On 29 September 2026, the Court’s Bureau, headed by President Mattias Guyomar, met with some members of the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), led by its Chairperson, Sergiy Vlasenko, at the Human Rights Building in Strasbourg.

During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed the attractiveness of the post of judge and post-mandate recognition; national selection procedures and delays in submission of lists of candidates.

On 29 September 2026, the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, accompanied by the Registrar, Marialena Tsirli, met with the Chair of the Network of Parliamentarians to Promote the Implementation of the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Adam Bodnar, in Strasbourg. They discussed the role that the Network, established in April 2026, will play in strengthening the role of Parliaments in the process of execution of the Court’s judgments.

On 29 September 2026, the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, met with Germany’s Federal Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, in Strasbourg. The judge elected in respect of Germany, Anja Seibert-Fohr, and the Registrar, Marialena Tsirli, also attended the meeting. The President thanked the Minister for Germany’s strong support to the Court and the Convention system. He also presented the Court’s achievements in reducing its backlog of pending cases and highlighted its role in holding Russia accountable for human rights violations.

• Country profile: Germany

On 28 September 2026, the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, accompanied by Anja Seibert-Fohr, judge elected in respect of Germany, attended an official ceremony marking the 75^th anniversary of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, held in Karlsruhe, the city where the court has its seat and where it was established on 28 September 1951.

Approximately 1,000 guests attended the ceremony. Germany’s Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier; President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Stephan Harbarth, and Vice-President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Anne-Katrin Kaufhold, delivered speeches at the event.

The President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, addressed the Autumn Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on 28 September, taking place in Strasbourg from 28 September to 2 October 2026.

In his speech, President Guyomar highlighted that the judges elected in respect of each of the 46 member States of the Council of Europe are an essential link in the DNA chain of the Convention system, adding that their strong democratic legitimacy derives from their election by PACE.

He explained the Court’s efforts to increase the efficiency and visibility of its work and to make its judicial activities more accessible. He underlined that the Court carries out its judicial work in full independence and continues to apply judicial pragmatism by interpreting the text of the Convention in light of the specific context of each case.

President Guyomar also highlighted the Court’s role in ensuring Russia’s accountability, referring to the historic inter-State judgment in the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, and stressed that the Court’s work on ensuring Russia’s accountability in this regard will continue.

Citing recent rulings, the President of the Court stressed that they reflect the mutual confidence between the Court and the domestic superior courts, while also noting that the principle of shared responsibility requires the Court to exercise its supervisory role.

• Speech by President Mattias Guyomar

On 24 September 2026, the Court honoured the memory of Helga Pedersen, the first woman to sit as a judge of the Court, by inaugurating the “Helga Pedersen Room” and a permanent exhibition. The event brought together the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar; judges of the Court, including Anne Louise Bormann, the judge elected in respect of Denmark; the Court’s Deputy Registrar, Abel Campos; the Permanent Representative of Denmark to the Council of Europe, Ambassador Michael Aastrup Jensen; a delegation of Danish judges; and numerous other guests.

In his address, President Guyomar described Helga Pedersen as a trailblazer, highlighting the many firsts that marked her remarkable career: she was Denmark’s first female Minister of Justice, the first female Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog, Denmark’s second female Supreme Court judge, and the first woman to sit as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

He also paid tribute to her commitment to human rights and legal humanism, describing her as a defender of truth. Reflecting on the breadth of her career, President Guyomar said: “Helga Pedersen was a judge, a minister, a parliamentarian. And then, an international judge. I find it fascinating how Helga Pedersen managed to combine, over the course of her legal career, strands characteristic of all three branches of power: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.”

After President Guyomar, Anne Louise Bormann, judge elected in respect of Denmark, and Ambassador Michael Aastrup Jensen, Permanent Representative of Denmark to the Council of Europe, took the floor and reflected on the lasting legacy of Helga Pedersen.

The exhibition entitled Her Story: The First Woman on the Bench of the European Court of Human Rights explores selected aspects of Helga Pedersen’s career and legacy, focusing on her role as the first woman judge at the Court, her commitment to the abolition of the death penalty, and her advocacy for women’s rights. The exhibition can also be viewed online.

Also on display during the inauguration was the original of the Court’s Chamber judgment in Winterwerp v. the Netherlands, signed by Helga Pedersen, the first woman ever to act as President of a Chamber at the Court.

• Speech by President Mattias Guyomar
• Accompanying booklet