On May 9-12, the Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria, participated in the annual meeting of the International Governing Board of the International Institute of Ombudsmen (IOI) in New York, USA, as well as the meeting of the IOI Regional Directors.
At the IOI International Governing Council meeting, UN Ombudsman Shirin Dodson made a presentation in which she spoke about her activities and role. Participants focused on the IOI’s efforts to obtain observer status in the UN General Assembly. It should be noted that the Public Defender of Georgia is actively working in this direction.
At the meeting, the IOI International Governing Board adopted seven new institutions from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and North America.
With the approval of the Council, it was also decided that the IOI would, in the future, conduct training with a specific focus on topics such as torture prevention in Latin America, media skills and more. Other important issues were also discussed.
During the meeting, IOI President Chris Field signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the IOI and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
On May 25-27, the Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria, at the invitation of the Greek Ombudsman Andreas Potakis, participated in the meeting of the IOI Regional Board of Directors in Sunio, as well as the IOI General Assembly and the conference on the topic: In the era of modernism. “
It should be noted that at a conference in Sunni, one of the judges of the Strasbourg court in his speech particularly emphasized the opinion of a court friend nominated by the ombudsman in the case against Iceland by the Grand Chamber as a best practice and the ombudsman’s cooperation with the European Court of Human Rights.
The Public Defender of Georgia has been a member of the IOI Europe Regional Board of Directors since 2019 and a member of the IOI International Governing Board since 2021.
The IOI was founded in Canada in 1978 and is the only global organization bringing together independent ombudsman institutions in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin and North America. As the only global organization, the IOI represents ombudsmen around the world.
