Following several successful training programmes such as the “Sharpening Your Teeth” training course and the complaint handling seminar, it is our pleasure to announce this year’s IOI training session which will take place from 15 to 18 September 2013 in Laxenburg, a small town near Vienna, Austria.

The practical training seminar “Progress measurement in implementation of the legislation concerning ensuring equality and non-discrimination” took place in the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine.

The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, dealt with more than 30 000 complaints and opened almost 3 500 investigations into alleged maladministration in the EU administration during his ten years in office.

A three-day study visit by the Albanian National Preventive Mechanism took place on 21-23 May at the Office of the Polish Human Rights Defender.

An evaluation of the activity of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights in 2012 has been prepared by an expert group for monitoring. Among the main achievements of the institution was the implementation of a policy of transparency and the open dialogue between the Commissioner and NGOs.

The IOI has recently been informed by the Malawi ombudsman office that the Malawi Ombudsman Ms Tujilane Chizumila was attacked and robbed at her Lilongwe home last month.

The Portuguese Ombudsman has been reaccredited as A status National Human Rights Institutions, in full compliance with the Paris Principles, for the period of 2012-2017.

On 22 May 2013, FRA’s Management Board formally decided to extend the contract of Morten Kjaerum as Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights for another three years, with effect from 1 June 2013.