In 2011 the activities of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights had to be carried out under the circumstances of crisis tendencies, where crisis management often generated debates on the interpretation of fundamental rights.

The European NPM Newsletter is a bi-monthly review of information deemed relevant for National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) in the Council of Europe region. It is prepared under the aegis of the National Human Rights Structures (NHRS) Unit of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe

Certain provisions of the Act on Nationalities, which entered into force on 1 January 2012, are contrary to the Fundamental Law and restrict the fundamental rights of nationalities – the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has requested the Constitutional Court to establish this and to annul the text parts indicated in his petition.

Within a recent meeting the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) agreed on intensified cooperation.

During its mid-term meeting that took place from 7 to 8 May 2012 in Hong Kong, the IOI Board of Directors took decisions on several applications for individual, associate and institutional membership. Welcoming the new members to the IOI family the General Secretariat presents the main facts and figures of each new member ending today with the Ombudsman the Canary Islands.

Only one day after the entry into force of the new legal foundations of the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) Chairwoman Terezija Stoisits and fellow AOB members Peter Kostelka and Gertrude Brinek met with the recently appointed six Commission Chairpersons for a first working session.

The Ombudsman for Bermuda presented the institution’s 7^th Annual Report covering the year 2011. The Annual Report 2011 is available on the Website of the Ombudsman for Bermuda.

As of 1 July 2012 Ombudswoman Terezija Stoisits has taken over the chairmanship of the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) from Getrude Brinek who held the position since July 2011.