The 40th Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator was tabled in Parliament and contains a special focus on ethno-cultural diversity in corrections. Correctional Investigator, Mr. Howard Sapers, noted that recent inmate population growth is almost exclusively driven by increases in the composition of ethnically and culturally diverse offenders

This week, Québec Ombudsperson, Ms Raymonde Saint-Germain, was elected President of the Association des Médiateurs et Ombudsmans de la Francophonie (AOMF) for a two-year term.

The Ombudsman of Spain has updated the 2012 monographic report Human Trafficking in Spain, in order to know the status of recommendations made and 71 % of the recommendations included in the Ombudsman of Spain’s report on human trafficking have been accepted.

During its annual meeting, held in New York in September 2013, the IOI Board of Directors took decisions on applications for IOI membership and is therefore delighted to welcome the new members to the IOI family.

The Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) and Penal Reform International (PRI) recently presented a new joint resource: the Detention Monitoring Tool: addressing risk factors to prevent torture and ill-treatment.

In the recent months the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has received several complaints concerning the wage system of social care workers. The complaints referred to the fact that, as far as remuneration is concerned, social care workers are not treated in the same way as those working in the healthcare system and licenced by the Office of Health Authorisation and Administrative Procedures.

IOI Secretary General Günther Kräuter attended a workshop on effective parliamentary oversight of human rights, which was held by the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London from 13 to 14 November 2013.

Between 28 September and 20 October 2013, the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance of Tanzania (CHRAGG) conducted a public awareness campaign on land rights in 22 districts out of 169 districts of the 14 regions of Tanzania. The targeted groups were citizens and local government officials at the ward and village levels.