BackAt the beginning of June, the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen – JO, was hosting the Nordic Ombudsmen Meeting in the town Ystad in the southern part of Sweden.
The Nordic Ombudsmen comprises of Ombudsmen from the following countries: Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. They gather once every second year in order to elaborate the most important issues of common interest applying to the current work of the Ombudsman institutions.
Among the key topics discussed were the Ombudsman’s work as National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) based on the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention against Torture of 2002 (OPCAT), the Ombudsman and the national human rights institutions, the Ombudsman in the 21th century, the Ombudsman’s oversight of private entities, the Ombudsman’s oversight of ordinary supervisory bodies, the Ombudsman’s work within the international field, the new Danish Freedom of Information Act, the Ombudsman’s work with follow up of adjudications with recommendations to the authorities and a proposal for exchange of staff for studying purposes and seminar’s between the Nordic Ombudsmen’s offices.
The next Nordic Ombudsmen Meeting is planned in 2016 in Denmark.
Source: Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen, Sweden
