The International Ombudsman Institute welcomes Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration back as an I.O.I. member. The I.O.I. Board of Directors carefully assessed the request submitted by Sri Lanka in May and decided to give way to the demand welcoming the office's incumbent L.A.Tissa Ekanayake back in the I.O.I. community.

Every year since 1945, the “European Forum Alpbach” has been held in the Tyrolian mountain village of Alpbach. Speakers and participants from all parts of the world, and with different backgrounds in science, economics or politics, experienced experts and students, come together in the framework of this prestigious event to discuss current issues and to formulate interdisciplinary solutions.

The 10th I.O.I.World Conference, to be held in Wellington, New Zealand from 13 to 16 November 2012, will provide Ombudsmen from around the world with the opportunity to meet, share their experience and engage in fruitful debate and discussion. The conference website has been recently launched.

The Gibraltar Chronicle covered the recent SYT training that took place at the I.O.I. General Secretariat in Vienna in June 2011 and that was attended by an expert from the Gibraltar Ombudsman's office. The article specifically points out the diversity of institutions represented in the course that provided the opportunity for views and practices to be discussed and new contacts to be made

The Public Defender of Rights (Ombudsman), as the Czech equality body, responses for researching in the area of discrimination and his first research was focused on employment (job offering). Ombudsman analyzed about 12,000 job advertising released on one of the portals in April and found out that every 6th advertisement was discriminatory.

The Ombudsman recently recommended that offences against the person and discriminatory acts where homophobia is the main motivation be criminalised. He underscores that in most EU Member States' legislations, homophobia is an aggravating circumstance or a constituent element of the offence.

The Korean I.O.I. member ACRC recently received an UN award for "Advancing Knowledge Management in Government" for its "e-People" tool. This integrated online portal deals with civil complaints and proposals regarding central and local governments and public organizations. The average number of daily visitors is about 100,000.

I.O.I. representatives have reacted to the tragic events in Norway expressing their solidarity. In communications to the Norwegian Ombudsman and member of the European I.O.I. Board Arne Fliflet I.O.I. President Beverley Wakem, I.O.I. Secretary General Dr. Peter Kostelka and Regional-Vice-President Rafael Ribó expressed on behalf of the entire ombudsman community  their deep sympathy.