IOI | 40th Anniversary celebrations start with side event at UN headquarters in New York

On 30 April 2018 the IOI held a side event at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York to mark the 40th anniversary of its establishment in 1978. The event was organized by the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations in New York in close cooperation and with the generous support of the Permanent Missions of Ireland, Thailand and Zambia.

Speakers at this event included IOI President Peter Tyndall, IOI 1st Vice-President Diane Welborn, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Andrew Gilmour and Patrick Keuleers, Director of Governance and Peacebuilding for UNDP.

The side event provided a platform for exchange between the United Nations and the Ombudsman community. It was the perfect setting to advocate the important work Ombudsman institutions around the world do in the human rights field and to showcase the role Ombudsman institutions play in implementing the Agenda 2030.

In his speech, IOI President therefore underlined that: “Ombudsman institutions are oversight bodies, that can help bring through the UN agenda.” This was further emphasized by his colleages, Mr Bertrand, the President of the Association of Ombudsman and Mediators of the Francophonie (AOMF), and Ms Ruíz Class, the President of the Federation of Ibero-American Ombudsman (FIO), who both stress the importance of UN recognition for Ombudsman and the work they deliver in the area of human rights protection and promotion.

The IOI has come very far since its establishment in 1978. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of its establishment, the IOI presented its most recent publication on “A Mission to Justice – The International Ombudsman Institute 1978-2018”, by Richard Carver, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights and Governance at Oxford Brookes University, during the UN side event as well.

The session is available online and can be accessed and viewed HERE.

 

 

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