Marianne Ryan was officially appointed as Alberta’s ninth Ombudsman and second Public Interest Commissioner on 4 July 2017. Prior to becoming the Ombudsman and Public Interest Commissioner, Ms Ryan led a successful career that spanned 35 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Rob Behrens, the chair of the European Network of Ombudsmen in Higher Education published a new study entitled "Being an Ombudsman in Higher Education". He therein reviews the lived experience of ombudsmen in 18 countries. Having had unique access to ENOHE archives and drawing on a network-wide survey, he has produced the comprehensive account of European practitioners.

The Ombudswoman of the Republic of Croatia expressed concern regarding parts of the Draft Act on Ombudsman for Children. In her opinion, she underlined the importance of strengthening the capacity and indepdence of this office, in order to ensure compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In view of the increasing use of immigration detention as a deterrent of migration and the toughening of doemstic and regional migration policies resulting in human rights violations, the APT considers the Global Compact on Migration to be a timely opportunity to raise concerns over these issues. APT proposes a position paper that contains seven key advocacy messages that are indispensable to the Compact from a torture prevention perspective.

The Ombudsman's Office of the Republic of Latvia has been nominated for the Latvia's 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report Hero. This nomination reflects the work of the Ombudsman's Office in the field of preventing human trafficking.

The Ombudsman of Hong Kong released to the public her Annual Report 2017. The Report noted that most government departments are receptive to the recommendations for improvement made by the Office of The Ombudsman to address their inadequacies. The Report also highlighted the increasing number of complaints about access to information in the past few years. The number of related cases the Office received during the past year was at a record high.

In the course of the 2017 Chief Executive (CE) Election, the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) lost two notebook computers, one containing the personal data of 3.78 million electors. Having examined the two reports on the incident, the Ombudsman commented on them today (July 18).

The Seimas Ombudsmen's Office of the Republic of Lithuania has been defending human rights and freedoms and investigating complaints about the abuse of office by or bureaucracy of state and municipal officials and since 2014 has been monitoring human rights at places of detention. The Ombudsman Institution has now published its Annual Report of the year 2016, detailing its activities and initiatives.