On behalf of IOI community, IOI President Peter Tyndall and IOI Secretary General Kräuter issued a statement of solidarity with the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia.

On 5 December 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia presented a report on the situation of human rights and freedoms in 2017 to representatives of the diplomatic corps, international organizations and civil society.

Doctor of Laws Petri Jääskeläinen has been re-elected to serve as Parliamentary Ombudsman for a term of four years. His term will begin on 1 January 2018 and end on 31 December 2021. The election of Dr. Jääskeläinen was confirmed at the plenary session on 21 November 2017. Dr. Jääskeläinen was the only person who had submitted his candidature for the post. 

La cifra fue dada a conocer por el Defensor del Pueblo, Raúl Lamberto, durante una conferencia de prensa realizada este martes en la ciudad de Santa Fe, en el marco del Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra la Mujer que se conmemoró el 25 de noviembre pasado. Del total, más de 600 casos corresponden al Centro de Asistencia a la Víctima de la ciudad de Rosario y 225 al de la capital provincial.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in case C-409/16, which was recently published, was asked to reply to a request for a preliminary ruling addressed to it by the Greek Council of the State, regarding compliance of the minimum height requirement for admission to Police Academy of at least 1.70m, common for both sexes.

As a result of a number of complaints to the Ombudsman and wider community concern, the Ombudsman conducted an investigation into the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Housing's processes for determining and pursuing maintenance debts against public housing tenants. The investigation found that many public housing tenants were charged thousands of dollars for the repair of damaged public housing, even when there was no evidence they caused the damage. The investigation also found that the department was wasting public resources and breaching its responsibility as a Model Litigant by making unreasonable demands for cost recovery and pursing claims to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Female prisoners in Victoria’s main women’s prison are being routinely strip searched, in what Ombudsman Deborah Glass has described as a “humiliating, degrading and undignified practice”.  Tabling the Implementing OPCAT in Victoria: report and inspection of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Victorian Parliament, Ms Glass said an independent inspection had uncovered some serious issues.

The Spring 2017 issue of the Ombudsman Quarterly Review is available now. It includes: engagement in the Pacific, the Ombudsman's Annual Report 2016/17, Disability Rights update, Experts by Experience on our OPCAT visits, agency progress on the OIA, PrivacyLive on Right to Know Day, latest case notes and opinion.