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.

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.