The Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman released its news for July 2015.

In accordance with Article 11(1) of the Law on the Seimas Ombudsmen, the Seimas Ombudsmen submitted the Annual Report on their Activities in 2014. An English summary of the Seimas Ombudsmen’s Office is now available online.

The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC), an international human rights organisation based in Budapest, recently completed a 2-year European multi-country research project on access to justice for children with mental disabilities. The project was designed to strengthen access to justice and legal remedies for children with intellectual or psycho-disabilities who have been victims of human rights violations. Summary reports are - among others - available in English and Spanish.

Mrs Sheila Brathwaite is the newly appointed Complaints Commissioner of the Virgin Islands. Mrs. Brathwaite replaces the Territory's first Complaints Commissioner, former Deputy Governor Mr. Elton Georges, who served for some six years.

Queen Margaret University’s MSc Dispute Resolution – the world’s first masters programme aimed specifically at professional and ombudsman complaint handling staff – launched successfully earlier this year.

The Bahrain Ombudsman, the first Independent Ombudsman in the Region, presented his second Annual Report. In the period from 1 May 2014 to 30 April 2015, the Office received 908 complaints and requests for assistance. This is an increase of 375% compared with the previous year's total of 242.

On July 9 2015 Mr. Gabriel GUILAVOGUI, IT Director of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Guinea, visited the IOI General Secretariat and the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) .

 

El Valedor do Pobo firmó en Vitoria una declaración institucional en relación á “execrable” vulneración de los derechos humanos que, aún hoy, constituye la violencia de género. Esta comunicación, en la que se incide en especial en la necesidad de que los poderes públicos atiendan las necesidades de los menores que son víctimas de la violencia de género, es consecuencia de un encuentro de trabajo celebrado en Vitoria por parte de la región europea de la Red de Mujeres de la Federación Iberoamericana de Ombudsman  (FIO) de la que forma parte a institución gallega.