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Legal obligation of addresses of recommendations to reply to the
Ombudsman

Principle 9
It is common for the Ombudsman to be empowered to stipulate a
timescale for response to recommendations and for State bodies to be
under a duty to respond to recommendations. In Ireland, for example, the
Ombudsman can state, when making a recommendation, the timescale
in which a response must be provided. Similarly, in Croatia, State bodies
must notify the Ombudsman of the measures undertaken in response to
a recommendation within the timescale set by the Ombudsman.

Assigning special functions to the Ombudsman institution

Principle 10
A number of Ombudsman institutions have been designated as the
National Protection Mechanism under the Optional Protocol to the UN
Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment; these include, among others: Bulgaria,
Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro,
Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. Some Ombudsman
institutions have also been given the role of Independent Mechanism
under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; these
include Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Hungary, and Spain.
It is important that Ombudsman institutions are provided with sufficient
resources and appropriately qualified, skilled and trained staff to develop
the capacity enabling it to effectively discharge these functions. The great
majority of Ombudsman institutions which also act as national preventive
mechanisms (NPM) benefited from comprehensive training programmes
on monitoring places of deprivation of liberty implemented by the Council
of Europe. An outstanding example of such cooperation programmes is
the European NMP Forum which has been funded by the European
Union and implemented by the Council of Europe since 2017. The Forum
is a platform for continuous exchange of knowledge and good practices
between EU NPMs and some others with a view to strengthening their
capacity to fight against ill-treatment in line with the Council of Europe’s
standards. Similar training programmes have been conducted by the
Council of Europe in cooperation with the Ombudsman institutions in
Russia (for Public Monitoring Committees) and Türkiye (for Civil
Monitoring Boards).

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