The President of the European Court of Human Rights, Robert Spano, a number of current and former ECHR judges and Thomas Markert, the former Secretary of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission of constitutional experts, will take part in the Eighth Regional Rule of Law Forum for South East Europe on 3 and 4 September.

The online event, focusing on judicial independence and impartiality, will bring together presidents and judges of supreme and constitutional courts, ombudspersons, state agents at the ECHR, representatives of judicial centres, law schools, non-governmental organisations and legal experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo^*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Sessions will focus on the following themes:

• key criteria for determining the independence and impartiality of courts
• the relationship between independence and impartiality and other articles of the European Convention on Human Rights
• the role of the judiciary, media and other branches of government
• key challenges and good practices in the Western Balkan region.

A central conference, held in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, will be supplemented by a network of hubs in the capitals of the jurisdictions involved. The forum can be followed online, in English and the relevant local languages, via a multilingual web platform (register here). The forum aims to promote the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights at the state level, encourage regional cooperation on the rule of law and human rights and help countries in their efforts towards EU accession. The event is organised by the AIRE Centre and Civil Rights Defenders, with the support of the governments of the United Kingdom and Sweden as well as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

^{*All reference to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.}