On 23 January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe announces that Prof. Dr. G. Sagatys has been elected as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights for a nine-year term of office, starting no later than three months after his election, by an absolute majority of votes cast.

Lithuania also nominated Lyra Jakulevičienė, a professor at Mykolas Romeris University, and Edita Žiobienė, the Ombudsman for the Protection of Children's Rights.

The new Lithuanian delegate will replace the incumbent, Judge Egidijus Kūris, at the end of his term of office.

The judges are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from a list of three candidates submitted by each state that has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights was established in 1950 under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court has as many judges as there are States Parties to the Convention, but the judges work on their own behalf, do not represent their own country, and are independent and impartial in their work.

The Court is made up of five chambers, the composition of which is fixed for three years, taking into account geographical and gender balance and the proportionality of the representation of the legal systems of the different Member States.

Pranas Kūris was a judge of the European Court of Human Rights from Lithuania for two terms from June 1994 to 2004, followed by Danutė Jočienė from November 2004 and E. Kūris from 2013.