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Annual Report Summary 2012 2012 The Ombudsman · Annual Report · Annual Summary The Ombudsman 2012 Eduardo Dato 31 y Zurbano 42 28010 Madrid, España Tel: 91 432 79 00 Annual Report DEFENSOR Fax: 91 308 11 58 DEFENSOR DEL PUEBLO [email protected] DEL PUEBLO www.defensordelpueblo.es Summary 2012 Annual Report Summary 2012 DEFENSOR DEL PUEBLO Written and coordinated by: Departamento Ombudsman Public Relations Department Designed and printed by Composiciones RALI, S.A. Legal Deposit: M-17392-2013 © Defensor del Pueblo Fortuny, 22 - 28010 Madrid www.defensordelpueblo.es All parts of the text of this publication may be reproduced providing the source is credited. Under no circumstances may reproductions of this document be used for profi Contents Presentation ............................................................................................................................................................................ 7 The Ombudsman is committed to mediating in a year marked by the crisis .................... 11 Statistics and Management Report ..................................................................................................................... 15 Supervision of Public Administrations SECURITY AND JUSTICE The Ombudsman is committed to defending the rights of the victims of terrorism .............................................................. 37 MIGRATIONS AND EQUAL TREATMENT The Ombudsman Institution presented a monographic report on human trafficking in Spain ......................................... 44 EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION AND CULTURE The Ombudsman calls for a law governing the education system to be passed by consensus with guaranteed funding .. 49 HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY The impact of the crisis on health care and welfare benefits was the main subject of citizen complaints ........................... 56 ECONOMY AND FINANCE This Institution’s 2012 priorities: Protecting mortgage debtors and those affected by the sale of preferred stock ........... 68 ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT The Ombudsman investigated infrastructures which are costly or questionably useful as a result of non-strategic planning ................................................................................................................................................................................. 77 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM AGAINST TORTURE In its NPM capacity, the Ombudsman visited 52 facilities where persons are deprived of their liberty ............................ 83 Institutional Representation Activities .............................................................................................................. 85 Presentation The report presented to Spanish Parliament is a rendering of accounts regar- ding all of the actions taken by this institution throughout 2012. Efforts have been made for this report to be presented immediately following the year end so as to provide a near-at-hand view and account of all that has been done which is closely in touch with the problems and the issues dealt with and to avail of the truest picture possible of the past year. In late July 2012, Spanish Parliament appointed Soledad Becerril as the new head of the Ombudsman Institution along with her two deputies, Francisco Fernández Marugán as the First Deputy Ombudsman and Concepció Ferrer as the Second Deputy Ombudsman. Those of us newly elected to these posi- tions most highly value the work done by our predecessors and, in many cases, have continued what they had been doing. We have logically also made some changes we found to be advisable in regard to the internal reorganization and the information which is provided to citizens so as to furnish them with fuller, faster information. The advancements in the field of new technologies have enabled us to provide faster responses and a greater deal of information on all the activities. The 2012 report is comprised of a first volume summarizing all of the major actions, initiatives, complaints, suggestions, recommendations, ex officio in- vestigations, reports and requests for appeals for protection of constitutional guarantees, along with a reference to the supervisory and inspection measures carried out in our capacity as a National Preventive Mechanism against Tortu- re. In an effort to set out the different requests received from citizens as clearly as possible, an account is provided of the main complaints lodged individua- lly and all those which, once received, have been combined together for study as a whole, as well as all the requests for the filing appeals for protection of constitutional guarantees. The recommendations and suggestions put forth to the public administra- tions comprise one of our major endeavors, as we believe the mediating effort carried out by this Institution to be highly valuable for preventing, correcting, modifying or conciliating measures we consider advisable after listening to what citizens have to say. The Ombudsman is an institution which, although not vested with legislative or executive capacities, can be said to have the necessary authority to successfully convey to the executive and legislative branches of government the need of taking certain measures or drafting rules of law which the circumstances make advisable. The second volume of this report includes the lists of cases processed and all the determinations put forth and is at the disposal of Spanish Parliament and the citizenry on the Ombudsman’s website. The report begins by setting out the Institution Budget, which was lowered as of 2010 and then cut back once again, by 4.5%, in July 2012, amounting to a total of 14,492,900 euros for the 2012 year. This budget streamlining effort, which seemed necessary given the vast majority of citizens having found their incomes to be dwindling, and the public administrations also having cut their budgets, has been possible on doing away with expendable budget items: cars, expense allowances, travel expenses and all sorts of amenities not es- sential to fulfilling the Institution’s purposes. We believe that the principles of austerity and transparency must be a top priority for all government bodies, and as a result of the latter of these two principles, all of the information of an economic nature which has to do with this Institution will be made available to the citizenry this year. The year 2012 has been a year marked by the economic crisis, as a result of which citizens have suffered not only loss of income but also dwindling emplo- yment and career-related prospects, in addition to finding services with which they had previously been provided to now have diminished. Spain’s Budget Stability Law of September 27, 2011, stemming from the amendment of Article 135 of the Constitution for the purpose of reducing the government spending Presentation 7 deficit, has resulted in the provision of certain services having The statement which the ETA terrorist group made on October been partially reduced or eliminated completely. 20, 2011 as to abandoning “armed combat”, a euphemism employed by ETA for describing perpetrating attacks and com- Also, as a result of the constant rise in unemployment, families mitting extortion, is not conducive to our forgetting the victims have encountered greater difficulties concerning meeting pa- and their families. Spanish society will always be indebted to yment commitments they had undertaken some time ago. them. It is not possible to redress the injuries and losses sus- Added to these circumstances is the fact that most of the tained, but we must at least try to help them get on with their banking institutions have found themselves affected by the lives as painlessly as possible. One of the recommendations plummeting real-estate market, this being a risk they had not which this Institution has therefore put forth to the Ministry of calculated well enough, many of these Justice is for the Ministry to provide the means necessary in banking institutions having required restructuring and provision order for the victims to be able to know the imprisonment sta- of funds resulting in the decline in the amount of credit provi- tus of those having committed the attacks in question, as well ded for companies and families. as being informed sufficiently in advance as to court procee- dings being held. And also that the process of clarifying the Additionally, some financial institutions, mainly savings and hundreds of attacks as yet to be adjudged and bringing those loan Banks, have behaved absolutely reprehensibly regarding who committed them to justice not falter. The memory of the their customers and savings account holders. They have sold victims must be a lasting one over the course of time for our high-risk financial products termed “preferred shares” to peo- society. ple without properly informing them as to the complexity and risk of these investments. There are tens of thousands of peo- The reports which the Ombudsman has made throughout ple who, on wishing to withdraw their deposits, have found it 2012, presented before Spanish Parliament and made availa- impossible to do so due to the conditions they signed having ble to the public have been born out of having detected irregu- differed greatly from what they had been led to believe. The lar actions in some area, problems not diagnosed by other so-called “preferred shares” were given no preference institutions or problems put forth by citizens which, in our jud- whatsoever when it came to these investors recouping their gment, have not been dealt with sufficiently.
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