On 12 and 13 November in Athens, the Greek Ombudsman celebrated the 15^th anniversary of the institution, at a symposium held at the Auditorium of the Acropolis Museum with the support of the Council of Europe.

At its New York meeting in September 2013, the IOI Board of Directors acknowledged that the Commission on Administrative Justice fulfilled the criteria set out in the IOI By-laws and accept the Commission of Administrative Justice as Voting member of the IOI.

The Office of the Catalan Ombudsman published the December edition of its e-Newsletter. The full version of the English Newsletter is available here.

The Parliament of Finland (Eduskunta) re-elected Parliamentary Ombudsman Petri Jääskeläinen to continue in office for another four-year term 2014 - 2017.

On 2 and 3 December 2013 the Office of the Ombudsman for the Ministry of Interior in Bahrain organised a training session on "Investigation Skills" in which former Northern Ireland's Prisoner Ombudsman Pauline McCabe and Senior Investigating Officer in Northern Ireland Clare McVeigh lectured.

On Monday, 2 December 2013, Mr Peter Tyndall was appointed Ireland’s Ombudsman and Information Commissioner. Mr Tyndall received his warrant of appointment from President Michael D. Higgins at a ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin.

In light of Peter Tyndall’s departure to take up the post of Irish Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, the National Assembly for Wales has appointed Professor Margaret Griffiths as Acting Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. The National Assembly for Wales will now conduct a full and open recruitment process to appoint a permanent successor to Peter Tyndall.

On 3 December 2013, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) presents its fundamental rights-based police training manual at the International Conference on Human Rights Education and Training for the Civil and Public Service in Dublin, Ireland. This training manual seeks to help foster a relationship of trust between police and society as a whole by integrating human rights considerations into police training.