The Head of the Seimas Ombudsmen’s Office, Mr Augustinas Normantas, hosted a meeting with the Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Mr Michael O’Flaherty.

La Défenseure des droits, Claire Hédon, publié le premier volet de sa contribution à l’élaboration de la Stratégie française sur l’égalité, l’inclusion et la participation des Roms, portant sur les droits des « Gens du voyage ». Elle alerte sur les discriminations systémiques vécues par les gens du voyage et les insuffisances tant quantitatives que qualitatives en matière d’aires d’accueil.

In anticipation of the international online conference on the theme "Advancing the rights of older people in an age of longevity", which will take place on 1 December 2021, you are kindly requested to fill out this online questionnaire on the role of the ombudsman in advancing the rights of older people. The data obtained from the questionnaire will be presented during the conference. Please submit the questionnaire by 22 October 2021.

IOI President Chris Field contributed an official statement on the occasion of the 5^th International Conference on “Human Rights Protection in Eurasia: Exchange of Best Practices of Ombudspersons”, which was organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation on 12 October 2021.

The Victorian Ombudsman today released her latest report "Investigation into allegations of collusion with property developers at Kingston City Council."The Ombudsman investigated the Council's planning approval processes for the Patterson Lakes marina area and allegations a senior planning officer and two former councillors had corrupt and improper dealings with property developers.

A new publication by Naomi Creutzfeldt, Chris Gill, Marine Cornelis, and Rachel McPherson offers a novel socio-legal approach to access to justice, alternative dispute resolution, vulnerability and energy poverty. It assembles the findings of an interdisciplinary research project studying access to justice and its barriers in the UK, Italy, France, Bulgaria and Spain (Catalonia).

An NHRIs symposium held on the side-lines of COP26 from 3 - 5 November 2021 aims at providing a greater understanding of the climate regime to facilitate NHRI work to promote and support human rights within climate policy and climate accountability. The event will also be an occasion for NHRIs to discuss and consult on the monitoring and reporting tool on climate change and human rights, which is currently developed by GANHRI.

The latest book by Gareth Jones – who directed many impactful investigations for the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman – is entitled How To Investigate: The Fundamentals Of Effective Fact-Finding and published by Thomson Reuters.