Junior Human Rights Lawyer: Courtroom & Drafting Role

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

The Court is divided into five sections, the composition of which is fixed for three years. Each of these sections comprises different units organised per country. You will be assigned to one of these units, which is made up of both experienced lawyers and assistant lawyers whose number varies mainly according to the number and type of cases linked to the country. Each unit also has dedicated administrative support. On arrival, you will receive comprehensive training and will be fully integrated into your unit.

Your Role

As an Assistant Lawyer, you will assist more senior members of staff in the preparation of correspondence with applicants and draft decisions in standard form cases. You will:

• examine and deal with applications in prima facie inadmissible cases and in cases which can be dealt with in a standard manner;
• draft decisions, minutes, reports, notes and other documents;
• attend the Court’s sessions and present applications;
• assist one or more experienced case-lawyers, where necessary, in the preparation of Chamber cases for examination by the Court.y

Requirements to apply

You must:

• have a higher education degree in law, obtained in Greece, of a standard permitting access, either on the basis of qualifications or after passing a competitive examination, to the judicial administration or legal professions in Greece ("Ptychion" in law);
• after having obtained the relevant higher education degree in law, have a maximum of two years of relevant professional experience acquired in the legal field (preferably in the judicial service) in Greece or in international Organisations; please note that the traineeships (including the traineeship to enter the Bar) will not be counted in the professional experience;
• have a very good knowledge of one of the two official languages of the Council of Europe (English, French) and the ability to draft legal texts therein clearly and precisely; excellent knowledge of Greek (first language level).

You must also:

• be a citizen of one of the member states of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
• have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
• not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe
• be under 35 years of age at the closing of the deadline for submission of applications for this vacancy notice.

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework .

Deadline to apply: 15 June 2026 (23:59:59 CEST).