On 31 October 2024, the Ombudsman published the findings of the second ‘own initiative’ investigation, which focuses on the administration of carers’ needs assessments by 4 Local Authorities in Wales – Caerphilly County Borough Council, Ceredigion County Council, Flintshire County Council and Neath Port Talbot Council.
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Victorians made 18,031 complaints about their experiences with public organisations in 2023-24, according to the Victorian Ombudsman’s annual report tabled in Parliament on 31 October 2024.
The NSW Ombudsman’s report - Review of the DCJ Complaint System in respect of its Aboriginal Child Protection functions, was tabled in Parliament on 6 November. The report follows a comprehensive review of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) system for handing complaints from, or involving, Aboriginal families in the child protection system. The review focused on understanding DCJ’s complaint handling system, the foundational elements underpinning it and how well it is operating in practice.
At the 27th Presentation Ceremony of The Ombudsman’s Awards on 31 October 2024, The Ombudsman, Mr Jack Chan, presented the Grand Award to the Hong Kong Fire Services Department, an Award for Public Organisation to both the Social Welfare Department and the Water Supplies Department, the Award on Mediation to the Housing Department, the Customer Services Award to the Immigration Department, and the Information Technology Application and Creativity Award to the Hospital Authority. Individual Awards were also given to 79 public officers.
On 8 October 2024, the African Ombudsman Research Centre (AORC), in collaboration with the IOI, held a webinar in celebration of the Ombuds Day 2024 under the theme "Ombuds: Here to Hear". In case you missed the Ombuds Day 2024 webinar or wish to revisit it, you can access the recording of the webinar on YouTube.
The Office of the Ombudsman in Malawi is conducting its annual file updating and audit exercise. According to Administration Officer Gracious Chirambo this is done in compliance with Government Directives, laws and policies.
Del 24 al 25 de septiembre de 2024, la presidenta de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (NHRC, por sus siglas en inglés) del Yuan de Control, Chen Chu; la vicepresidenta de la NHRC, Wang Yu-ling; y los miembros de la NHRC Kao Yung-cheng y Lin Wen-Cheng asistieron a la edición número 29 de la Reunión Anual de los Miembros del Foro Asia Pacífico para Instituciones Nacionales de Derechos Humanos (APF) en Bangkok, Tailandia. En calidad de observadores, los representantes de la NHRC presentaron un informe sobre los resultados de trabajo de dicha comisión en temas de igualdad de género.
The Dean, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, a former Senior Investigating Officer with the Office of the Ombudsman in Malta and author of “The Ombudsman: too soft a take on the public administration?” (BDL 2020) is currently working on another, somewhat more ambitious work, this time considering the ombudsman institution from a global perspective. The Ombudsman of Malta kindly asks for a vast participation in the survey and hopes for responses until the end of November 2024. Please click here to access the survey.
The 2023-24 Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) was tabled in Parliament on October 29, 2024. The Office’s latest Annual Report breaks new ground in two national-level investigations examining conditions of confinement in male stand-alone maximum-security penitentiaries and on the experience of persons serving a life (or indeterminate) sentence in Canada, a sentence that has no end date.
On 28 October 2024, Gaby Schwarz, Ombudsperson of the Austrian Ombudsman Board and Secretary General of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), received representatives from the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission of South Korea (ACRC) for an exchange meeting.