Mary McFadyen, Saskatchewan’s Ombudsman and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner, released the Ombudsman Saskatchewan Annual Report 2015 and the Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner Annual Report 2015 today. The Ombudsman received 22% more complaints in 2015 than in 2014. In addition, the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction was expanded in November to include municipalities.

The Offices of the Commonwealth and NSW Ombudsman recently worked in partnership to develop and present a three-day training program in Vanuatu in April 2016 on “Strengthening Skills in Administrative Investigations”.

An IOI Workshop on “Human rights challenges now: the Ombudsman facing threats”, was hosted by the Office of the Ombudsman of Catalonia and held in Barcelona from 26 – 27 April 2016.

Austrian Ombudswoman Gertrude Brinek welcomed Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the premises of the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) in Vienna on 29 April 2016.

The Public Defender of Georgia published an information bulletin of March. The bulletin brings together important events of the month. Of course, the main event of the document is the presentation of the 1260-page parliamentary report on human rights and freedoms.

La valedora do pobo. Milagros Otero Parga, aplaude la creación de una tarjeta acreditativa para las personas que cuentan con algún tipo de discapacidad en Galicia. Esta iniciativa, materializada en una orden de la Consellería de Política Social, fue promovida por la institución del Valedor do Pobo durante los últimos ejercicios en sucesivas recomendaciones, nacidas de las reivindicaciones trasladadas por los representantes de las personas con discapacidad en nuestra comunidad.

Manitoba Ombudsman conducted an investigation following a report from Manitoba Health, Healthy Living and Seniors related to a privacy breach at its Provincial Drug Program. A former employee who had access to personal health information through their job, allegedly used that access to view information for purposes unrelated to their work. Upon completing the investigation, the ombudsman laid a charge against the individual under PHIA for deliberately accessing another person’s health information inappropriately.

On 20 April Hong Kong Ombudsman, Ms Connie Lau, announced that a new section dedicated to complaint cases relating to the Code on Access to Information has been added to the website of the Office of The Ombudsman. Furthermore, the Office collaborated with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) to produce a TV mini-series called “The Ombudsman 5-minuter”.