Ombudsman Institutions and Minority Issues

The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) has for the past 2 years managed a network of ombudsman institutions in the wider Europe, supporting them in their work with minority issues, encouraging the establishment of specialized structures for minority issues within those institutions, and facilitating the exchange of information through training workshops, conferences and online resources.

 

The Ombudsman Project aims to expand the availability and effectiveness of ombudsperson institutions addressing minority issues in the wider Europe. The Project supports the establishment of new institutions where there are none at present and it strengthens capacities for minority protection and human rights work in existing mechanisms.

 

In many countries in the last few years new ombudsman offices have been established, legislation passed or amended, and/or a focus on human rights, including minority rights, strengthened. It is crucial to encourage a solid basis for dealing with minority issues within the institution from the beginning of their operation, supporting best practice and enabling a sharing of experiences and information from more experienced institutions through the project network.

 

ECMI's Ombudsman programme is being pursued through three interrelated strands of methodology. These combine expert studies and advice, capacity enhancement through training/workshops, and the networking of institutions and exchange of experiences.

 

In close cooperation with a distinguished group of international experts and practitioners, and supported by the office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the project has been realizing its goals in three main ways:

The Ombudsman Project is carried out with the cooperation of the: OSCE Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities; Venice Commission Secretariat; Danish Institute for Human Rights; Parliamentary Commissioner for National Minorities of the Land of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany); approximately 30 institutions making up the project network.

Lloydd, Marnie (ed.), Ombudsman Institutions and Minority Issues: A Guide to Good Practice. Foundational Criteria, Strategic Development and Operational Issues (Skopje, European Centre for Minority Issues, 2005).

 

Lloydd, Marnie: 'Minority Ombudsperson Project Network Conference Report', Meeting Report, Berlin, 16-17 October 2003 (European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, 2003).

 

All project publications can be found on the website: www.ecmi.de/doc/ombudsman

Data is collected from ombudsman institutions, both from their official publications, including annual reports and special reports submitted to parliament, as well as from secondary sources and literature on the ombudsman institution.

 

In addition, the project makes use of information sourced directly from staff of ombudsman institutions, shared with the Network institutions during project workshops.

 

The data collected is disaggregated to differing levels depending on the statistics provided by the institution and country in question.

Measurement of data tends to be quantitative, for example, number of complaints received by ombudsman office, subject of complaint, ethnicity of complainant, geographical source of complaint, percentage of complaints per head of population in given area, etc.