Inauguration of the Helga Pedersen Room and permanent exhibition
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.