Jan Sikuta was judge at the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

between 2004 and 2015. He is born 25 October 1960 in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

(

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Education

He studied law at the law faculty of the

Comenius University Comenius University Bratislava () is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century ...

from 1979 to 1983. In 1984 he obtained the title of "Doctor in law". In 1985, he passed the judicial exam of the Ministry of Justice, and was elected judge by the Slovakian Parliament. Between 1989 and 1991 he pursued postgraduates studies in law at the law faculty of Charles University in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Career

In 1986, he was appointed to the District Court in

as first instance judge until 1990. On this date, he was elected to the Court of Appeal. In 1994, he started to work as legal officer for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

High Commissioner for Refugee office. During this time, his post as appeal judge was preserved. He was a co-founder of the Slovak Association of Judges and served as its vice president from 1992 to 1994. From 1993 to 1994, he was also a member of the board of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights. From 2000 to 2003, he participated to

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

's expert committee of the law program. Between 2002 and 2004, he was a member of the Pan-European Union. He became judge at the

on 1 November 2004. As a judge, he was cited in an NGO report for having seated in a case where the Open Society Justice Initiative was involved and other cases where other organizations linked to the

were involved too. Due to his previous links with this organization, this would pose the question of a possible conflict of interest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sikuta, Jan Living people 1960 births People from Bratislava Slovak judges Judges of the European Court of Human Rights Slovak judges of international courts and tribunals 20th-century Slovak lawyers