Yesterday, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) elected Jon Fridrik Kjølbro to become the new judge at the Court in respect of Denmark. Kjølbro’s term will last nine years and will start within three months from now. He will succeed Peer Lorenzen, a longtime judge at the court since its reform into a fulltime Court in 1998 and before that for several years a member of the former European Commission of Human Rights.
Kjølbro was elected from the list of three candidates submitted by Denmark and was elected by a large majority, obtaining more votes than the other two candidates combined. Jon Fridrik Kjølbro is currently a high court judge at the Eastern High Court in Copenhagen and previously worked at the Danish Ministry of Justice, where he – amongst other functions – served as the head of the human rights office. He is also part time vice-chairman of the Refuge Board which deals with asylum cases. The new judge thus has solid experience both in the executive and judicial branches of government.
His curriculum vitae, as well as a description of Denmark’s open application process for the position, can be found here.
