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15 Years of the Public Defender of Rights

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15 Years of the Public Defender of Rights Together Towards Good Governance 15 Years of the Public Defender of Rights Editors: Petra Zdražilová, Dagmar Krišová 15 Years of the Public Defender of Rights Content List of Authors ......................................................................................................................................3 Foreword ...............................................................................................................................................4 15 years of the Public Defender of Rights: Foreword by Anna Šabatová ..................................5 Slovak Public Defender of Rights in 2001 and in 2015 ...................................................................9 The Ombudsman’s Role in Society ................................................................................................. 15 The Role of the Public Defender of Georgia ..................................................................................19 Extension of the Competence of the Public Defender of Rights ...............................................25 We Have Not Abandoned Human Rights in the Czech Republic ...............................................29 Parliament and the Ombudsman .................................................................................................... 31 The Public Defender of Rights and the Czech Social Security Administration – Co-operation between Two Different Organisations ...........................................................................................35 Cooperation of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia with Public Administration ....................................................................................................................................41 Role of the Public Defender of Rights in the Area of Human Rights ....................................... 48 Public Defender of Rights – What Path Should the Defender Take on International and National Levels 15 Years after Establishment of this Institution? ..............................................54 Future of the Ombudsman – Few Thoughts on Topical Issues .................................................. 60 Ombudsman as ears and eyes of the Parliament ....................................................................... 64 The Austrian Ombudsman Board ...................................................................................................67 15th anniversary of the Czech ombudsman; ten years after our cooperation ........................73 Output from Peer-to-peer Meeting on „Methods of Work“ ......................................................75 Innovative working methods in the activities of the Czech Public Defender of Rights .........79 Output from Peer-to-peer Meeting on “Communication and Transparency” .........................95 Public Relations ................................................................................................................................. 99 Output from Peer-to-peer Meeting on “Influencing Legislation and Case Law” .................105 Influencing Legislation and Case Law: Powers and Experience of the Czech Public Defender of Rights .............................................................................................................................................108 Narrative bios – active participants ................................................................................................115 2 Together Towards Good Governance List of Authors Bazalová, Veronika: Output from Peer-to-peer Meeting on “Methods of Work”, pp. 75–78 Bartošek, Jan: We Have Not Abandoned Human Rights in the Czech Republic, pp. 29–30 Bebarová Rujbrová, Zuzka: Parliament and the Ombudsman, pp. 31–34 Brinek, Gertrude: The Austrian Ombdusman Board, pp. 67–72 Dientsbier, Jiří: Extension of the Competence of the Public Defender of Rights, pp. 25–28 Dubovcová, Jana: Slovak Public Defender of Rights in 2001 and in 2015, pp. 9–14 Hrazdílková, Iva: Public relations, pp. 99–104 Kanoun, Vilém: The Public Defender of Rights and the Czech Social Security Administration – Co-operation between Two Different Organisations, pp. 35–40 Křeček, Stanislav: Future of the Ombudsman – Few Thoughts on Topical Issues, pp. 60–63 Kubíková, Barbora: Influencing Legislation and Case Law: Powers and Experience of the Czech Public Defender of Rights, pp. 108–114 Langášek, Tomáš: Role of the Public Defender of Rights in the Area of Human Rights, pp. 48–53 Láníčková, Anna: Output from Peer-to-peer Meeting on “Communication and Transparency”, pp. 95–98 Lipowicz, Irena: Ombudsman as Ears and Eyes of the Parliament, pp. 64–66 Majerčík, Ľubomír: Public Defender of Rights – What Path Should the Defender Take on Inter- national and National Levels 15 Years after Establishment of this Instituion?, pp. 54–59 Nanuashvili, Ucha: The Role of the Public Defender of Georgia, pp. 19–24 Norková, Sára Dagmar: Output from Peer-to-peer Meeting on “Influencing Legislation and Case Law”, pp. 105–106 Nussdorfer, Vlasta: Cooperation of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia with Public Administration, pp. 41–47 Polák, Petr: Innovative Working Methods in the Activities of the Czech Public Defender of Rights, pp. 79–94 Stehouwer, Adriana: 15th anniversary of the Czech ombudsman; ten years after our cooper- ation, pp. 73–74 Székely, László: The Ombudsman’s Role in Society, pp. 15–18 Šabatová, Anna: 15 years of the Public Defender of Rights: Foreword by Anna Šabatová, pp. 5–8 3 15 Years of the Public Defender of Rights Foreword You are holding in your hands a collection of papers presented at the Interna- tional 15th Anniversary Conference of the Public Defender of Rights in the Czech Republic held on 26 and 27 March 2015. On the first day of the Conference, the floor was given to prominent guests from the Czech Republic and from abroad who presented their work. Their contributions touched upon the role of the Public Defender of Rights, co-oper- ation between the ombudsman and governmental authorities, the role of the ombudsman in the area of protection of human rights, and also the future of the Czech ombudsman and its counterparts in other countries. The programme of the second day of the Conference included three peer-to-peer meetings with the participation of representatives of ombudsman institutions from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Georgia and Slo- venia. The peer-to-peer meetings’ agenda focused around the methods of work of the individual ombudsman institutions, the possibilities for influencing legislation and case law, as well as public relations and the accountability of these institutions. This publication also includes a brief summary of the outputs of these workshops alongside the contributions presented there by the repre- sentatives of the Czech Office of the Public Defender of Rights. We took the liberty of including short introductions of the authors of the individual papers, which were presented by our gracious guest and host of the Conference, Mr Pavel Molek. You will find the official CVs of the participants at the end of this publication. The conference was held as part of the project Together Towards Good Governance (CZ.1.04/5.1.00/81.00007). The project beneficiary and the imple- menting body is the Office of the Public Defender of Rights. We wish you a pleasant reading! Petra Zdražilová and Dagmar Krišová 4 Together Towards Good Governance 15 years of the Public Defender of Rights: Foreword by Anna Šabatová It is hardly necessary to introduce Ms Šabatová and her life and experience as a victim of human rights violations. She was already subject to persecution as a student of the Faculty of Arts. Later she was imprisoned for spreading anti-regime and anti-Communist-party leaflets and subsequently signed and acted as a spokesperson for Charter 77. She was among the co-founders of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted, while simultaneously managing to raise three children, a no small feat. After the Velvet Revolution, she was able to complete her studies which had previously been interrupted under the Communist regime in the “normalisation” era. She also completed doctoral studies and served as the Chair of the Czech Helsinki Committee. She was awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and served as Deputy of the first Public Defender of Rights, Mr Motejl. We were all very pleased when she was elected as the Public Defender of Rights in February of last year. Anna Šabatová Office of the Public Defender of Rights, Czech Republic [email protected] Keywords ombudsman, defender, National Preventive Mechanism, focal point for equal- ity, human rights, fundamental rights and freedoms, ill-treatment; discrimina- tion, Constitutional Court Abstract Anna Šabatová recalls the initial difficulties in establishing the Czech ombuds- man. The original lack of trust in the new institution was soon removed by the first Czech Public Defender of Rights, Otakar Motejl, who was the ideal person for the position of defender of rights. The original task of the ombudsman to protect people against illegal or otherwise incorrect conduct or inactivity by the administrative authorities was gradually extended to include the as- pect of protection of people in various facilities against ill-treatment (National Preventive Mechanism) and also protection of persons against discrimination (national focal point for equality). The Public Defender hopes that she will man- age to dispel the current doubts about
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