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Events commemorating the ten years of the Greek Ombudsman

On the occasion of the ten years from the publication of the founding law of the Greek Ombudsman Institution, the 10th Round Table of European Ombudsmen as well as a national conference entitled the Ten Years since the Establishment of the Greek Ombudsman were organized.

The 10th Round Table of European Ombudsman (12-13/4/2007)

The Greek Ombudsman, in collaboration with the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, organized the 10th Round Table of European Ombudsman in Athens at the Zappeion Megaron on Thursday and Friday, 12 and 13 April 2007.  For the first time, all the Ombudsmen from the member states of the Council of Europe were in Greece together with the heads of National Commissions for Human Rights, a total of approximately fifty representatives.

The sessions of the Round Table were inaugurated by the President of the Greek Republic, H.E. Dr. Karolos Papoulias on Thursday April 12 and closed by the Minister for Internal Affairs, Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos, on Friday April 13.

The topic of the Round Table is of major importance for its impact on the European institutional structure as it relates to the new role of the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights and the national Ombudsmen in the provisional procedure before the European Court for Human Rights of Strasbourg after validation of the 14th Additional Protocol to the European Agreement for Human Rights.  In accordance with the new amendments, the national Ombudsmen will undertake to provide information and evaluations with regard to the applicability of an individual’s recourse to the European Courts as well as, correspondingly, to expressing their opinion with regard to queries concerning violations of human rights to the European Court for Human Rights itself.

Ten years from the foundation of the Greek Ombudsman (16 – 17 April 2007)

On Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 April 2007 an event entitled “Ten Years from the establishment of the Greek Ombudsman” was organized at the Royal Olympic Hotel.  The event was inaugurated with a greeting from the President of the Greek Parliament, Anna Benaki-Psarouda, presented in her absence by the Greek Ombudsman, Yorgos Kaminis. This was followed by reminisces to relevant discussions in the Greek parliament at the time when the law for establishing the Ombudsman was adopted, in which discussion participated members of the various political parties, e.g. P.Pavlopoulos, A.Papadopoulos, A.Skylakos, F.Kouvelis.  The second day of the event consisted of two sessions in which Greek legal and political scientists participated, e.g. A.Manitakis, N.Diamandouros, E.Spiliotopoulos, G.Papadimitriou, I.Nikolakopoulos, K.Spanou.

On 11-13 June 2007 Mr. Armen Harutyunyan, the Armenian Ombudsman (Human Rights Defender), accompanied by the Head of Staff and two investigators of  the Armenian Ombudsman Office, participated in a study visit to the Greek Ombudsman office in Athens, organized under the Eunomia project.  The study visit aimed to provide the members of the Armenian Human Rights Defender, as well as the Greek Ombudsman’s staff, with a reflection on the day-to-day practices and functions of the respective institutions. The study visit agenda also included the following topics: relations with the judiciary, minority rights, state – citizen relations, children rights’ violation cases, cultural heritage and environmental protection, human rights violation cases, social welfare issues.

In the framework of this visit a lecture on: “The role of the Ombudsman in Armenia” was delivered by Mr. Armen Harutyunyan.  The lecture was held on Tuesday, the 12th of June, from 12:00 to 13:15, at the premises of the Greek Ombudsman (5, Hatziyanni Mexi Str., Conference Hall, 3rd floor) and was followed by a discussion.  The Greek Ombudsman, Mr. Yorgos Kaminis, introduced the lecture.  During the lively discussion that followed, members of the Greek Ombudsman’s staff had the opportunity to exchange information about the everyday work, the legal background and cases handled by the Armenian Ombudsman Office.

Please visit the Armenian Ombudsman’s website for more information on the visit. http://www.ombuds.am/main/en/9/27/793/

Study visit to the Office of the Public Defender of the Republic of Georgia - Tbilisi
In late July 2007, a three member delegation from the Office of the Greek Ombudsman, comprising Ms. Chrissi Hatzi, Deputy Ombudsman of the “Quality of Life” Department, Mr. Dimitris Christopoulos, Eunomia Project Manager, and the Greek Ombudsman himself, Mr. Yorgos Kaminis, paid an official visit to the Office of the Public Defender of the Republic of Georgia in Tbilisi. This was the second bilateral contact between the two institutions, following the official visit of a delegation of the Georgian Public Defender’s Office headed by Mr Sozer Subari, in Athens in June 2006.
The Greek Ombudsman delegation held meetings with the Public Defender’s staff, representatives of the religious minorities in Georgia and members of the Greek community of the country. Messrs. Kaminis and Subari agreed to consolidate the links of collaboration between their two offices within the framework of the Eunomia project. It is expected that the Greek Ombudsman and the Georgian Public Defender will work together in organising an international conference to be held in Tbilisi in spring 2008 on the topic “Minorities before the Ombudsman” for the 10th anniversary of the Georgian institution.

12 to 14 September 2007 Training for the Ombudsman of Montenegro, Podgorica
EUNOMIA received a request from the OSCE Mission in Montenegro for advanced training of the staff of the Ombudsman of Montenegro regarding complaint handling on environmental protection. The training took place on 12-14 September 2007 in Podgorica by Mr. Nikos Vittis, senior investigator at the Greek Ombudsman office. The training focused on practices developed by the Greek Ombudsman office, the adoption of relevant EU legislation and the Aarhus convention. A full day was dedicated on handling environmental complaints submitted to the Montenegro Ombudsman, as well as on exchanging experience and information on environmental issues of interest to the citizens of Montenegro. The national press showed great interest in the event

“The Ombudsman’s Intervention between the Principles of Legality and Good Governance”, capacity building seminar, Sofia – Bulgaria, 17-18 September 2007

On the 17th and 18th of September an international capacity building seminar, entitled “The Ombudsman’s Intervention Between the Principles of Legality and Good Governance”, was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The seminar was organized by the Eunomia programme of the Greek Ombudsman, which operates under the auspices of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and was hosted by the Bulgarian Ombudsman.

Approximately thirty representatives from Ombudsman institutions from Southeastern and other European countries participated in the seminar. The European Ombudsman, Mr. Diamandouros and a further seventeen ombudsmen attended the seminar themselves -among whom the ombudsmen of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia and Sweden. Representatives of the Bulgarian Parliament, the European Court of Human Rights and the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe also participated.

The seminar aimed to:

• broaden participants' awareness and knowledge of good governance issues and policies
• provide participants with examples of good practices  adopted by Ombudsmen offices throughout Europe, their implementation and outcomes
• develop participants' competence in promoting and pursuing good governance strategies in a coordinated and unified way.

The Greek Ombudsman attributes major importance to this seminar, as it was the first time that an open international comparative debate was organized by the Eunomia project, covering issues related to good governance and the role of Ombudsmen institutions.

3 to 7 October 2007 Study visit of the Greek Ombudsman to the Armenian Ombudsman Office and participation to International Conference, Yerevan, Armenia

A study visit of a Greek Ombudsman delegation (consisting of Ms. M. Karageorgou, Ms. A. Koutroumani, Mr. S. Stasinos) to the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia in Yerevan took place on 3-7 October 2007.

This visit was a follow-up to the study visit of an Armenian Ombudsman delegation in June 2007. The aim was to familiarise with the work and structure of the Armenian Ombudsman office and to provide an overview of best practices in complain handling and mediation as implemented by the Greek Ombudsman office. The delegation was welcomed and introduced to the staff by the Armenian Ombudsman Mr. Armen Harutyunyan.

Knowledge transfer and fruitful discussions were obtained during a staff seminar and numerous meetings with the departments of the Armenian Ombudsman office. Particularities of the respective mandates, day-to-day work and practices were analysed. Other topics of interest were relations with the judiciary, legislative proposals submitted by the Greek Ombudsman, the mandate to combat discrimination and promote the principle of equal treatment, issues of accessibility to prisons, environmental protection and social security.

On October 5 and 6, the delegation was invited to participate in the international conference "International experience of the Co-operation between Constitutional Courts and Ombudsmen in the field of ensuring and protecting Human Rights". The Greek Ombudsman, Mr. Yorgos Kaminis presented an intervention on the topic of the conference. Finally, the delegation met with the Greek Embassador in Armenia.

7 - 8 December 2007 Workshop "Lifting the barriers of social participation: ROMA population cases before the ombudsman" Old Parliament building, Nafplion, Greece.

On 7 and 8 December 2007 EUNOMIA organized a European workshop on "Lifting the barriers of social participation: ROMA population cases before the ombudsman".  The main aim of this workshop was to built upon the experience of the European Ombudsman institutions in handling Roma cases and formulate the basis of a standing cooperation on Roma issues with the public administration, in particular structures of local administration, and civil society tackling the major factors of Romas’ social marginalization. The major thematic clusters of problems concerning the Roma population were addressed, namely civic registration, education and housing.

All involved parties were invited to participate in the workshop:

1. Representatives of international institutions and EU bodies, such as the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE.
2. Delegations of European Ombudsman institutions in south-eastern Europe, in particular the Ombudsman institutions of Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.  The Greek Ombudsman Office was represented from a delegation consisting of the Greek Ombudsman, three Deputy Ombudsmen and senior investigators handling Roma cases.
3. Representatives of the public administration, in particular structures of local and central administration dealing with issues of civic registration (Ministry of Interior), education (Ministry of Education) and housing (Municipal and Regional authorities).
4. Representatives of the civil society, non governmental organisations dealing with Roma issues, Roma bodies of action. 

During the final session of the workshop three real cases were presented to the participants, addressing all the abovementioned thematic clusters of problems. The Ombudsman personnel explained their course of action and the respective issues were discussed in detail with the participants.

The Greek Ombudsman Office is currently working on the material collected during the workshop and will propose organizational, operational and legislative amendments.  
Draft agenda and Concept Paper