BackOn 1 December 2021, the Office of the Ombudsman of Israel, in association with the IOI and AOM, hosted an international online conference on the theme "Protecting the Rights of Older People in an Age of Longevity", in celebration of the Israel Ombudsman's jubilee year.
The conference, which brought together delegates from 50 countries around the world, discussed the unique challenges facing ombuds institutions across the globe pertaining to upholding and advancing the rights of older people.
Mr. Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, opened the conference and his greetings were followed by those of MK Mickey Levy, Speaker of the Knesset (Israeli parliament); Mr. Chris Field, IOI President; Mr. Andreas Pottakis, AOM President; Mr. Matanyahu Englman, State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, and Mr. Werner Amon, IOI Secretary General.
After the opening greetings, Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, Head of the Office of the Ombudsman, gave a lecture on the work of the Office of the Ombudsman of Israel in its 50 years of activity; on the challenges facing older people and on the role of ombudspersons in assisting elderly complainants. She also presented the research project conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman, which examined the discourse on social networks relating to older people, and shared data accumulated from the questionnaire that was distributed to the international ombuds community prior to the conference.
Dr. Ben-Haim's speech was followed by the fascinating lecture of keynote speaker Dr. Kira Radinsky, Chairperson and CTO of Diagnostic Robotics, who explained how it is possible to predict the future by means of a special method that she has developed.
Dr. Radinsky's lecture was followed by a panel of experts in the field of older people - Mr. Rob Behrens, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman of the United Kingdom; Professor Israel (Issi) Doron, Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa; Ms. Karen Gómez-Dumpit, Commissioner on Human Rights of the Philippines; Ms. Silvia Perel-Levin, Chairman of the Committee on Ageing, Geneva and Mr. Mark Miller, Long Term Care Ombudsman of the District of Columbia, Washington DC and President of the National Association of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs (NASOP). The panel was conducted by Adv. Johnathan Marcovitch, Senior Head of Department at the Office of the Ombudsman, and discussed a number of pressing issues relating to protecting and advancing the rights of older people in general and during the Covid-19 crisis in particular.
Interspersed throughout the conference were short, interesting interventions from the Ombudspersons of the Netherlands, Thailand, Albania and Croatia.
The conference was summed up by Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, who thanked the IOI and AOM for their support and expressed her blessings and gratitude for all the wonderful older people to whom the conference was dedicated - "those people who constitute for us daily our moral conscience and set a personal example, compelling us to act for future generations".
Please note that the Israel Ombudsman is still receiving completed questionnaires for an in-depth analysis of the role of the ombudsperson in advancing the rights of older people; the analysis will be shared with the international ombuds community. You are invited to fill out the questionnaire and submit it to the Office of the Ombudsman by the end of January 2022.
Source: Office of the State Comptroller & Ombudsman, Israel
