Brussels, 26/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian lawyer, Paul Lemmens, has been elected as a judge for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for Belgium. He takes over from Françoise Tulkens and won an absolute majority of the votes, beating both André Alen and Pierre Vandernoot. Lemmens its specialist lawyer in international human rights law and a lecturer at the Katholieke Universiteit de Leuven (KUL). He has already been an ad hoc judge in four cases at the European Court of Human Rights. His nine-year mandate begins this September. He is well aware of the current crisis affecting the ECHR and the pressure it is under with so many cases waiting to be heard and the incessant flow of new cases. In his letter of application, Lemmens said that the dramatic backlog of cases was another reason why he wanted to assume a position of responsibility at the Court. (VL/transl.fl)