The European Court of Human Rights will, for the first time, employ a Maltese–speaking court support assistant.

This will be the third Maltese-speaking person working at the European Court, the other two being Chief Justice Emeritus Vincent De Gaetano and a female case-processing lawyer.

The European Court of Human Rights is the judicial body that oversees the implementation of the European Human Rights Convention in member states. Individuals can bring complaints of violations to the Strasbourg Court once all possibilities of appeal have been exhausted in the member state concerned.

The main function of the Maltese-speaking assistant, for which a call for applications has already been made, will be “to provide a variety of secretarial support”.

The European Court of Human Rights is the judicial body that oversees the implementation of the European ­­­Human Rights Convention in member states

Among the key duties will be to process judgments, minutes, decisions and other documents of the court in the official language (English or French) in which the post-holder is more competent; draft and format standard correspondence in Maltese; prepare correspondence and enter and maintain case-related data in the court management information system.

Applicants must have excellent knowledge of Maltese (at mother tongue level), very good knowledge of one of the official languages (English or French) and basic knowledge of the other as well as good knowledge of Italian.

To apply one must be under 65 and a national of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states, which means the person may not necessarily be Maltese. Applications close on October 16.