Elected Judge Under False Pretences

Falsified Information in Application of Newly Appointed Human Rights Judge

State Prosecutor Päivi Hirvelä was elected in June to represent Finland on the bench  of the European Court of Human Rights. Already at the nomination stage, experts were astonished due to the fact that her career has never appertained to issues of Human Rights.

In her application, Hirvelä claims to having had nine-years experience as a judge. This is not so. According to her curriculum vitae, Hirvelä has worked as a judge in thirty-two short periods which amount to two years two months and three weeks - only slightly more than the requisite of one year sitting as a judge in order to qualify for  title Master of Law.

Hirvelä’s longest working relationship (1990-1996) has been as a public prosecutor  for the City of Lahti. From February 1999  Hirvelä worked as State Prosecutor, two years of which she has taken a leave of absence. In the 1980s she was employed as a referendary for Koivula Court of Appeal and worked for various stints for a period of slightly less than eight years.

Hirvelä’s 1997 -published dissertation on the child in the criminal process is her greatest merit. This, her only publication,should have become a docotoral thesis but thus far is incomplete.

Finland presented three candidates from which the  Council of Europe chose one. Hirvelä received 78 votes, Supreme Court Judge Gustaf Möller 55 and  Åbo Akademi University’s Martin Scheinin 11 votes.

Of those put forward, the candidate with the most extensive experience as a judge was Möller who is our most nationally renowned lawyer?????  Professor Scheinin is Finland’s most qualified human rights lawyer i.e. his competence is precisely in the field of the European Court of Human Rights. Compared to Hirvelä, Möller and Scheinin were undoubtably far superior candidates.

In all, 8 lawyers applied for the post of judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

A list of the three proposed candidates was put forward by Irma Ertman – Director General of the Legal Department for the Foreign Ministry,  Kirsti Rissanen the Chief of Staff for the Ministry of Justice, Paavo Nikola Chancellor of Justice of the Council of State, Pekka Hallberg the President of the Supreme Administrative Court and Pauliine Koskelo the President of the KKO. The matter was decided by Erkki Tuomioja the Foreign Minister.

There do not seem to be grounds for choosing the above candidates. Folke Sundman, the special advisor to Minister Tuomioja suggested asking Irma Ertman who has not returned my calls.

Mikko Niskasaari