Public Defender Meets with Director of Legal Aid Service

Date of article: 10/06/2026

Daily News of: 12/06/2026

Country:  Georgia

Author:

Article language: en

On June 9, 2026, Public Defender Levan Ioseliani and Deputy Public Defender Elene Ghudushauri met with the newly appointed Director of the Legal Aid Service, Otar Chakhunashvili.

The meeting focused on the importance of coordinated cooperation between agencies operating in the field of human rights protection, improving the quality of realization of the right to effective defense and the challenges facing the protection of the rights of beneficiaries; the importance of joint activities in this area was also underlined.

The parties also spoke about the specifics of the activities of the agencies and ongoing projects, discussed the importance of the consultative mandate of the Legal Aid Service, recommendations of the Public Defender and the mechanisms used for the examination of individual issues.

Other topics discussed included the possibilities of deepening future cooperation, including the exchange of information and practice, and future coordination.

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The Ombudsman recommended that the Ministry of Education and Science investigate reports of technical issues during the administration of the high school matriculation exams

Date of article: 10/06/2026

Daily News of: 12/06/2026

Country:  Bulgaria

Author:

Article language: en

Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva has approached the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Georgi Valchev regarding reports from students, parents, and teachers about organisational and technical issues that arose during the administration of the second round of compulsory final matriculation exams and the specialised advanced profile training exams.

10 June 2026

Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva has approached the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Georgi Valchev regarding reports from students, parents, and teachers about organisational and technical issues that arose during the administration of the second round of compulsory final matriculation exams and the specialised advanced profile training exams.

Complaints submitted to the Institution of the Ombudsman have raised issues related to technical difficulties during the English language exam, including problems with the playback and audibility of audio files in the listening section, which is of critical importance to the final results of high school graduates. According to information circulating in the public domain, approximately 3,000 students in various schools across the country were affected by the problem.

The Ombudsman has also received reports of serious technical difficulties during the state final exam in computer science and information technology, where the digital platform used experienced outages and disrupted the normal conduct of the exam. Parents and students are raising the issue of the need to review the platform and the organisation of the examination process.

The Ombudsman Institution has also received complaints regarding the content of certain questions on the entrepreneurship exam, with calls for an expert assessment of their pedagogical soundness and alignment with the course material. Teachers also raised the issue of ensuring anonymity in grading following the elimination of the second envelope, which had previously been used to separate students’ personal data from their exam papers.

In her recommendation to the Minister of Education, the Ombudsman emphasises that similar complaints have been received for yet another year and that the recurring technical and organisational difficulties raise legitimate doubts about the fairness of the treatment of high school graduates and the smooth conduct of the examination process.

“When thousands of students are placed in conditions different from those intended for the administration of a state exam, the issue is no longer a technical one, but a matter of fairness, trust, and the protection of the right to education. Every high school graduate should be evaluated solely on the basis of their knowledge and preparation, and not on the quality of the technology, the organisation or circumstances that arise by chance during the exam,” Delcheva states categorically.

She recommends that the Ministry of Education submit a report on the measures taken to address the identified issues and prevent their recurrence in future exam sessions, as well as inform the Institution of the results of the inspections conducted.

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Parliamentary Ombudsman submitted Annual Report 2025 to Speaker of Parliament

Date of article: 11/06/2026

Daily News of: 12/06/2026

Country:  Finland

Author:

Article language: en

On Thursday 11 June, Parliamentary Ombudsman Jari Råman submitted his Annual Report 2025 to Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho.

The Annual Report of the Parliamentary Ombudsman has been published (in Finnish) on the Ombudsman's website, and a summary in English will be published at a later date.

 

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People’s Advocate Office / May 2026 Newsletter

Date of article: 05/06/2026

Daily News of: 12/06/2026

Country:  Moldova

Author:

Article language: en

Monthly retrospective of the activities of the People’s Advocate Office and the main human rights issues addressed over the past month

 

Annual Report of the Ombudsman on Human Rights Observance in 2025 Reviewed by the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations

 

The Annual Report on the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Republic of Moldova in 2025, presented by the Ombudsman, was reviewed by the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations. During the meeting, the main findings and recommendations put forward by the Ombudsman, as well as the measures undertaken by the authorities to improve the protection of human rights in the Republic of Moldova, were examined.

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Ombudsman From The Italian Parliament: Institutions Must Be On The Ground

Date of article: 01/06/2026

Daily News of: 02/06/2026

Country:  Albania

Author:

Article language: en

The Ombudsman, Mr. Endrit Shabani, delivered a speech at the International Conference of Ombudsman, held at the Italian Parliament.

Speaking about technology, Mr. Shabani emphasized that the digital presence does not replace the physical presence of the institution among citizens, especially those who are not heard by the state.

He raised three questions for his colleagues: how to ensure minimum standards of transparency for our institutions; how to reach citizens who do not trust the state; and how to maintain independence without becoming a political actor.

“An institution does not live in its buildings or statutes. It does not live on online servers either. It lives in the moment when a citizen believes that his complaint will change something. Between the law as it is written and the law as it is applied, there is a distance, where trust is gained or lost. Our role is to be present on the ground and reduce this distance,” emphasized Mr. Endrit Shabani.

The conference closed with the Rome Declaration 2026, a common framework for the international protection of human rights.

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Link to the Ombudsman Daily News archives from 2002 to 20 October 2011