Court President delivers opening address at Warsaw conference
On 2 October 2025, the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, delivered an opening address at a conference on the Seventy-Five Years of the European Convention on Human Rights: The Role of Administrative Court Judges, co-organised in Warsaw by the ECHR and the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland.
As one of the most important events marking the Convention’s 75th anniversary, the conference brought together ten Judges from the ECHR, namely Vice President Ivana Jelić, judge elected in respect of Montenegro; Kateřina Šimáčková, judge elected in respect of the Czech Republic, Jolien Schukking, judge elected in respect of the Netherlands, Anja Seibert-Fohr, judge elected in respect of Germany, Peeter Roosma, judge elected in respect of Estonia, Mykola Gnatovskyy, judge elected in respect of Ukraine, Gediminas Sagatys, judge elected in respect of Lithuania, Artūrs Kučs, judge elected in respect of Latvia, Anna Adamska-Gallant, judge elected in respect of Poland, and Vasilka Sancin, judge elected in respect of Slovenia, along with judges from twelve different countries. The Registrar of the Court, Marialena Tsirli, also attended the conference.
In his speech, President Guyomar addressed the challenges faced by member States today, including war, climate change, and migration. He noted that a “return to the sources” highlights why the Convention was conceived and why it remains indispensable today, as the threats its drafters sought to guard against are re-emerging in new forms.
He described the Convention system as “not only the most advanced and effective international mechanism for enforcing human rights but also the most far-reaching system of international justice.” He also noted the principle of subsidiarity, the cornerstone of the Convention system, which implies an appropriate distribution of roles between national authorities and the European Court.
President Guyomar concluded his speech by highlighting the Court’s dynamic and evolutive interpretation of the Convention as a “living instrument”, ensuring that it speaks to realities that were unforeseeable and unimaginable at the time it was adopted.