On 27.11.2024, the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel hosted a highly successful roundtable event to mark the publication of its special report on the topic of public service in public bodies. The report was tabled with the Israeli parliament (Knesset) on 26.11.2024.
Mr. Mehmet AKARCA has been elected at the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT) as the new Chief Ombudsman of the Republic of Türkiye. Mr. Mehmet Akarca was sworn in on 03 December 2024 and officially took office as the new Chief Ombudsman of Türkiye.
Ms. Samadia Lightbourne, Senior Investigative Officer for the Office of the Complaints Commission in the Turks and Caicos Islands, participated in the annual Assembly and Seminar of the Institutie of the Latin-American Ombudsman (ILO), held from December 4-6, 2024 in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The event, located at the confluence of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, was graciously supported by Itaipú Binacional.
The Angolan Ombudsman, Florbela Rocha Araújo, in her capacity as President of the African Ombudsman and Mediators Association (AOMA), participated in the 15th Assembly and Seminar of the Institute of Latin-American Ombudsman (ILO), and during her visit to the event, she signed a Cooperation Agreement between AOMA and the ILO.
After successful completion of the 2nd phase of the project, the Hon'ble Provincial Ombudsman, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, decided to expand the awareness program throughout the province. Accordingly, different districts were visited for the purpose. So far, total 18 districts have been visited and awareness campaigns have been organized. This project has been sponsored by the IOI’s Regional Subsidy Programme.
The 3rd round of the Workshop on the Provincial Ombudsman Sindh’s Ambassador Programme was held at Salim Habib University, Karachi, on 11 December 2024 to instill the concept of civic responsibilities and advocacy skills in the youth of Sindh by carrying out the community outreach of ombudsman mandate to student community and general public. The workshop, initiated through the Regional subsidy of the IOI, focused on the role of the Provincial Ombudsman Office in providing administrative justice to the public, and was chaired by the Honourable Ombudsman of Sindh, Mr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput.
The Ombudsman’s monitoring visits to institutions for adults in 2023 focused particularly on the Prison and Probation Service’s transport of inmates to court appearances, outpatient treatment and in connection with transfer of inmates from one Prison and Probation Service institution to another.
The Chief Ombudsman says the Department of Corrections must stop the way it’s running the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit (PERU) because the unit’s prisoners are being ill-treated. Peter Boshier has released a report that outlines serious concerns about human rights abuses at the unit which is based at Auckland Prison.
The Committee on Domestic and Ethnic Affairs of the Control Yuan conducted a circuit supervision and inspection of the Ministry of the Interior on 4 November 2024, led by Convener Chu-Fang Chang, accompanied by President Chu Chen, Vice President Hung-Chun Lee, and other CY Members.
On 18 December 2024, The Ombudsman, Mr Jack Chan, announced the completion of a direct investigation operation into the public services relating to after-death arrangements, and made a total of 10 major recommendations to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Department of Health, the Hospital Authority and the Immigration Department.