Welcome to this edition of the I.O.I. newsletter highlighting current developments within the Institute.

Another successful membership year has come to a close during which the I.O.I. was able to provide clear membership value and to offer enhanced services to its members. Among many initiatives we want especially to note the SYT trainings held by the General Secretariat in partnership with the Ontario Ombudsman André Marin, who generously made his successful training programme available to us . In addition, EUR 50.000 have been invested to co-finance different projects in the I.O.I. regions of Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. The I.O.I. has equally worked on its research profile and is currently implementing the first comparative study of independent ombudsman institutions in the APOR region.

The new membership year certainly has two priorities: First, our joint efforts will concentrate on the preparations for the most important event in the ombudsman community that is the I.O.I. world conference 2012 in New Zealand. Second, after an initial meeting of the Bylaws Committee the I.O.I. Board will take the next necessary steps towards a comprehensive I.O.I. reform. Transparency and accountability will be the key content of this reform but will also be the cornerstone of our communication on this important issue. Each newsletter in the coming year will therefore update members on the progress made and the concrete new draft bylaws will be sent to all members well ahead of the world conference in autumn 2012.

Kind regards,

I.O.I. President Beverley Wakem CBE and I.O.I. Secretary General Dr. Peter Kostelka

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The annual meeting of the I.O.I. Board of Directors will be held in Livingstone, Zambia from 30 October to 2 November 2011. The I.O.I. is looking forward to the fruitfull discussions and upcoming decisions and would like to thank Ms Caroline Sokoni, Investigator General of Zambia, for hosting this event.

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The Ombudsmen and staff of the New Zealand Office of the Ombudsmen look forward to welcoming the ombudsman community to New Zealand in November 2012 to the I.O.I. world conference. Formal invitations and information about registration will be sent out in a few months and the conference website has recently gone "live".

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The Bylaws, Membership & Governance Committee, appointed during the Vienna meeting of the I.O.I. Board of Directors in 2009, held a meeting at the I.O.I. General Secretariat in Vienna on 27 May 2011. I.O.I. President Beverley A. Wakem chaired the Committee session.

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For the second time the Sharpening Your Teeth Training for staff members of ombudsman institutions was hosted by the Vienna-based General Secretariat. The I.O.I. financed nine scholarships for participants from Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten and Romania.

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At the Bermuda Board Meeting in October 2011 the I.O.I. Board decided that the I.O.I. would provide funds up to a maximum of EUR 50,000 for regional projects. Member institutions were invited to submit project proposals with a focus on training activities. Six applicants from five of the six I.O.I. World Regions were successful in the selection process conducted by the I.O.I. Executive Committee in spring 2011.

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A regional subvention was granted to the North American region to hold a two-day SYT training workshop in October 2011 prior to the United States Ombudsman Annual (USOA) Conference. The training course will be presented  by Ontario Ombudsman André Marin. We record our thanks for his continued support in this way.

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On 13 and 14 September 2011 an OPCAT workshop (Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture) for Ombudsman institutions will take place in Warsaw, Poland. I.O.I. Europe cooperates with the Polish Ombudsman Institution in the organisation of this event.

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The I.O.I. General Secretariat is pleased to offer all I.O.I. Members the opportunity of free of charge electronic access to the following publication: Kucsko-Stadlmayer, Gabriele (ed.): "European Ombusman-Institutions. A comparative legal analysis regarding the multifaceted realisation of an idea", Springer Wien New York, 2008.

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The I.O.I. General Secretariat is delighted to offer a new communication service to the Ombudsman community. The weekly “I.O.I. Ombudsman News” brings recent ombudsman news to members and applicant institutions as well as partner organisations and institutions.

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Several new incumbents entered into office in the past couple of weeks: Mr. Dominique Baudis is the new French Defender of Rights, Ms. Calliope Spanou the Greek Ombudswoman and Ms. Raymonde Saint-Germain was reappointed in Québec - to name only a few among many more renowned personalities.

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