The Victorian Ombudsman has launched an investigation into how public and community housing complaints are handled in a bid to improve processes and ensure fairness.

Women face many issues, such as violation of labour rights, domestic violence or inaccessibility of health care services. These issues require urgent solutions. In a video, the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Dr. Arman Tatoyan, summarizes the activities aimed at protection of women’s rights during his term of office.

On 20 January 2022, the Commissioner for Administration and the Protection of Human Rights, Mrs. Maria Stylianou - Lottides, submitted the Annual Report of her Office for the year 2020, as well as the individual Annual Reports detailing the work and action of the Office under the other mandates of the Commissioner, to Mr. Nicos Anastasiadis, President of the Republic of Cyprus.

On January 17, 2022, the Public Defender of Georgia met with IDPs living in Kartli sanatorium and listened to their problems. The Public Defender’s Office has been studying IDP issues for a long time and has issued a number of recommendations to improve their rights situation. 

The Chief Ombudsman of Thailand received several complaints related to preventive or support strategies in the pandemic of Covid-19. The main focus was put on relief measure to “leave no one behind”, assistance from the Telecommunication Sector to support people working from home during the pandemic, and the general shortage of medical equipment.

 

The University of Applied Sciences Vienna (FH Campus Wien) is conducting a study on the role of Ombudsman institutions in the context of the growing digitalization of public services worldwide. IOI member institutions are strongly encouraged to fill in a short online survey and/or to participate in a short interview with the researcher, Dr. Julia Dahlvik, to help her generate data for her research project, whose outcome will be of great benefit to Ombudsman institutions worldwide.

The third issue of the Control Yuan Newsletter was published on 1 January 2022, compiling Control Yuan news of the second half year.

Sandy Hermiston has resigned from the position of Ombudsman of the Cayman Islands, effective 31 January 2022. As of 1 February 2022, Mr Jan Liebaers is Acting Ombudsman until further notice.