Human rights and justice in Europe & CIS

Support to Ombudsman* Institutions

In many countries of the region, both courts and governments have been run without systems of democratic accountability and with restricted possibilities to seek redress in cases of violations. There has been a lack of legal services and a lack of awareness of human rights and government obligations and responsibilities. The objective of the Human rights and Justice Sub-practice is thus to contribute to the protection and promotion of human rights in Eastern Europe and CIS through the strengthening of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) or Ombudsman institutions, which can help poor and disadvantaged people obtain remedies, prevent future grievances and provide public education concerning human rights and corresponding duties for all at the national level.

The UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre work in this field focuses on providing support to NHRIs and Ombudsman institutions by building their capacities to better fulfill their mandate of protecting and promoting human rights at the national level. This is accomplished through helping the exchange of information and best practices and the preparation of practical guides, and by the organization of regional workshops to discuss topical issues related to the work of Ombudsman institutions.

Project document: Umbrella Human rights and Justice project

Events:   

Documents:  

• Ombuds Creation Acts
• History of Ombudsman institutions

Publications:

1. Guide for Ombudsman Institutions – How to handle complaints

This guide aims to share knowledge about best practices developed by Ombudsman institutions around the world for receiving complaints. The guide provides personnel of Ombudsman institutions with accessible guidelines on how to communicate and interact with individuals and groups that contact the Ombudsman institution to make complaints or seek information, and generally on how to handle complaints. It does not suggest the type of advice that should be given, as this will vary according to national legislation and the mandate of the Ombudsman institution, but contains best practices on policies regarding receipt of complaints, procedures to be followed when receiving complaints, personnel policies, confidentiality, bias, service equity, physical access to an office and protection of complainants and witnesses against retribution.

2. Guide for Ombudsman Institutions – How to conduct investigations

This guide is to share knowledge about best practices developed by Ombudsman institutions around the world. It aims to provide personnel of Ombudsman institutions with accessible guidelines on the rules and approaches for examining complaints and most importantly, for conducting investigations. More specifically, the guide contains best practices on policies regarding the receipt of complaints, decisions to investigate or not, how they are investigated and how the results of those investigations are presented to the complainant, the subject of the investigation, the public and the media. At the same time, it does not consider the specific types of complaints or complainants, specific subjects or media relations other than concerning investigations, alternative dispute resolutions or evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of an Ombudsman institution.

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 * The term Ombudsman is the Swedish word for an official appointed to receive and pursue cases of breaches of administrative duty, first established in Sweden in the 18th century. In English, this term does not appear to be gender inclusive since it includes the word 'man'. This had lead to widespread discussion among experts providing support and advice to Ombudsman institutions worldwide. These discussions have tried to identify a better English term that refers to the offices headed by both Ombudswomen and Ombudsmen. This has proven difficult and the debate has not been resolved.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is an international organization with the important mandate of promoting gender equality. UNDP makes a point of using gender inclusive terminology. Therefore, the UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States has decided to use the Swedish word Ombudsman to modify the term institution (i.e. Ombudsman institution) to refer to national institutions headed by women and men, and to italicize the word to indicate that it is a foreign word. The head of the Ombudsman institution, the officeholder, will be referred to as the Ombudsperson. This is to reflect a gender inclusive understanding of that position. The term Ombudsperson is intended to encompass all other forms of the word, such as Ombuds, Ombudswoman, Ombudsman, human rights commissioner, parliamentary commissioner of administration and others.