“The respect for the human being and his/her rights should not depend on his / her nationality or origin”- this view was shared by the Seimas Ombudsman Augustinas Normantas on the World Refugee Day drawing attention to the acute problems in Foreigners Registration Center.

The Ombudsman, Ms Connie Lau, today (June 12) initiated a direct investigation under section 7(1)(a)(ii) of The Ombudsman Ordinance (Cap. 397) into the effectiveness of mechanisms used by the Housing Department (HD) and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) to review and monitor the eligibility of existing tenants in subsidised public housing.

The Ombudsman, Ms Connie Lau, declared today (June 12) a direct investigation into the Government’s regulation of guesthouses.

Reporting on a record number of cases and systemic investigations in progress, Ontario Ombudsman André Marin called on the provincial government to build on its historic momentum toward opening the broader public sector to independent scrutiny.

Ombudsman Peter Tyndall has today, 13 June 2014, announced an investigation into how complaints are handled by public hospitals in Ireland and has asked members of the public for their assistance.  The Ombudsman’s wide ranging investigation will look at how public hospitals across the State manage and investigate complaints from patients and their families.

On 16-18 June, 2014 a delegation of Albanian media representatives, specializing on human rights affairs held a working visit to Warsaw. The group was accompanied by one representative of the Office of the People’s Advocate of Albania (Ombudsman). The purpose of the visit was to share experiences in the area of human rights media coverage and ways of cooperation between the ombudsman and the media. Hence the delegation paid visits to the Polish Press Agency and a chosen radio broadcaster.

Identity rights, guardianship, custody and access,commercial surrogacy, civil partnership and adoption are the primary focus of the Ombudsman for Children’s Advice to the Minister for Justice and Equality on the wide ranging General Scheme of the Children and Family Relationships Bill, published today (Tuesday).

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.