BackThe Office of the Ombudsman of Israel shares an article written in collaboration with academia.
The Office of the Ombudsman of Israel has the pleasure of sharing with the international ombudsman community an article written by Ms. Merav Fox Sobol, Senior Deputy Head of Department at the Office of the Ombudsman, in collaboration with two Israeli scholars, Mr. Avishai Benish* and Ms. Liron David**. The article, which was published in the Office's special Jubilee publication, examines the role of the Ombudsman pertaining to the right to access the administration.
In recent years, increasing recognition has been accorded to the importance of making social rights accessible in order to fulfil the notion of "social citizenship". Progress has been made in the Israeli governments’ approach to the take-up of rights; furthermore, Israeli judicial rulings and scholarly works have started to address the right to access the administration.
In the attached article, it is asserted that the Ombudsman can, and should, play a unique and central role in developing and promoting the right to access the administration as an inseparable part of its institutional function as Ombudsman. The article points out the principles and modi operandi that the Office of the Ombudsman can adopt, whether in handling complaints or increasing its own accessibility. The challenges facing the Ombudsman in this role are also briefly discussed, and an attempt is made to demonstrate, through illustrative examples of actual cases handled by the Ombudsman, how these principles and modi operandi can be implemented.
Main points from the article will be presented, among others, by Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, Head of the Office of the Ombudsman, at an upcoming conference of the Association of Mediterranean Ombudsman, which will take place in Malta from 31 October to 1 November 2023.
To read the article kindly refer to the download section further below.
*Prof. Avishai Benish, faculty member of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
** Liron David, Advocate and Social Worker, PhD candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Haifa; former Policy and International Relations Chief Officer, Enosh - The Israeli Mental Health Association.
Source: The Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel
