In the past two weeks there has been a lot of media attention on the election of Mr Van Woerkom as National Ombudsman of the Netherlands. A statement he made in 2010 about a Moroccan person and the fact that he left his former job with over 300 thousand Euro severance pay gave rise to many reactions.

The following contract positions are available at the African Ombudsman Research Centre, which is based in the School of Law at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Individuals with the required skills, commitment and drive to succeed are invited to apply. The closing date of applications has been extended to 30 June 2014.

In 2014 the Norwegian Parliament elected Supreme Court Judge Aage Thor Falkanger as ombudsman for the current parliamentary term (4 years). Flakanger is the fifth ombudsman to be appointed since 1962; he succeeds former Parliamentary Ombudsman Arne Fliflet who left office mid-June 2014.

At 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 Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

In the year 2013 the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) Tanzania has introduced the SMS for Human Rights System, which aims at improving service delivery targeting disadvantageous citizens women, children and elders who cannot access CHRAGG’s services through visits, e-mails or phone calls.

The Ombudsman of Spain asks for a court-appointed lawyer for minors who want their opinions to be considered in legal proceedings. Ombudsman Soledad Becerril presented a paper analysing whether minors’ views are heard adequately in legal proceedings that affect them.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman released the latest issue of its newsletter “Resolve – News from the Ombudsman” for the month of May 2014.

International human rights institutions are looking into the possibility of acting jointly to help free the Nigerian girls kidnapped on 14 April by the radical islamic group Boko Haram.