Lorraine Schembri Orland is Malta’s judge at the European Court of Human Rights

Lorraine Schembri Orland was elected judge on the European Court of Human Rights after obtaining an absolute majority of votes cast, the Council of Europe announced.

Judge Schembri Orland was one of three candidates nominated by Malta who were interviewed by the Council of Europe’s Election of Judges panel. The interview board recommended her as the most qualified candidate.

The other two final candidates were deputy Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg and Madame Justice Abigail Lofaro.

Malta officially has the first woman in its history to ever be elected as Judge on the European Court of Human Rights. Congratulations to Judge Lorraine Schembri Orland.

— Owen Bonnici (@OwenBonnici) April 9, 2019

In the plenary vote at the Council of Europe’s parliamentary session held today, Schembri Orland obtained an absolute majority of votes cast.

Her term of office at the Strasbourg court will be of nine years and will start from 20 September 2019.

She is the first ever female judge on the European Court of Human Rights from Malta and takes over from former chief justice Vincent De Gaetano.

Schembri Orland was appointed to bench in 2012. One of the more recent high profile constitutional cases she decided on was that which awarded the Nationalist Party two seats in Parliament after the 2013 election.

Between 1991 and 1993, Schembri Orland was a member of the drafting committee entrusted with legislative reforms to the Constitution and ordinary law to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender as part of Malta's process of accession to a UN convention.