International Judge Helen Keller is taking over the Position of a Judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH

The newly appointed international judge Helen Keller is taking over the position of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina today.

Professor of law at Zurich University, has been named judge of the European Court of Human Rights for a term of nine years, beginning October 2011.

Since 2008 Professor Keller has been a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee; in 2009 she was a Visiting Researcher at the Court in Strasbourg.

A native Swiss, she speaks English, French, German, Italian, and Polish. In an interview with swissinfo.ch, Professor Keller pointed to “the possibility of passing verdicts which break new ground in human rights law” as a key fascination in taking up the position at the Court. 

Among her interests in how Court decisions affect human rights are rulings involving gender equality, equal rights for homosexual couples, and detention rules (prisoner rights).

Noting that Court verdicts in such areas have been “not only groundbreaking for Switzerland but also have eminent importance for the whole of Europe.”