On February 11, 2025, the Public Defender of Georgia, Levan Ioseliani, met with the Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Mikheil Sarjveladze.

The parties discussed the current situation in the country in the psychiatric field and the recommendations developed by the Public Defender for the development of mental health services. They also emphasized the importance of cooperation between agencies in the process of eliminating challenges.

The meeting was attended by the Deputies of the Public Defender, Elene Ghudushauri and Irine Chikhladze, and employees of the Office, as well as Deputy Minister of Health Irine Tsakadze and other representatives.

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) has reacted constructively to a series of findings by the Ombudsman related to how it carried out remote tests as part of the recruitment process for the EU civil service.

In response to four cases where the Ombudsman had found maladministration, EPSO offered the candidates concerned the possibility to redo the tests. The complainants had encountered a variety of problems when they first took the remote tests administered by EPSO’s contractor, including technical problems in launching tests, a lack of or improperly working tools on the testing platform, and excessively long waiting times before a supervisor was available.

In addition to the cases where the Ombudsman found maladministration, EPSO settled a further two cases during the course of the Ombudsman’s inquiries by deciding to invite the complainants to retake the tests.

In response to a suggestion and remarks by the Ombudsman in two other testing-related inquiries, EPSO also said it would ensure it is possible to retroactively review the functionality of tools used by candidates during the tests and make it possible in the future to automatically provide candidates with a copy of their answers and the correct answers after testing.

Relevant inquiries

How the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) dealt with a complaint about technical problems in a selection procedure (EPSO/AST/155/22 - Assistants in the field of operational security) - 413/2023/MAG

How the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) handled a complaint concerning issues in the context of remote testing as part of selection procedure EPSO/AST/151/22-3 - 1027/2023/MAG

How the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) handled a complaint concerning the unavailability of proctors during a remote test in a selection procedure for EU staff EPSO/AD/398/22 - 1030/2023/MAG

How the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) handled a complaint concerning technical difficulties experienced during remote testing - 1735/2023/MAG

How the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) handled a complaint concerning technical issues during a remote test for an EU staff selection procedure - 1039/2023/MAG

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) no longer providing candidates with access to their answers and to the correct answers in the multiple-choice questionnaires (MCQ) - 1360/2024/MAG

How the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) dealt with technical issues in the remote testing in an EU staff selection procedure - 34/2024/MAG

How EPSO dealt with technical issues experienced by a candidate in selection procedure EPSO/AD/398/22 - 261/2024/MAG

A High Court judge has found in favour of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after a local authority challenged its report about childcare.

The report, which was due to be published in 2022, involved a complaint about parents being required to pay top-up fees for free nursery placements under the Government’s Free Early Educational Entitlement (FEEE) scheme.

The local authority under investigation, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, disputed the decision on a number of grounds and challenged the Ombudsman’s view that the top up fees imposed should have been voluntary through the judicial review process.

The case was heard before Mr David Lock KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court on 29 January 2025 and a decision was handed down on 7 February, upholding the Ombudsman’s understanding of the case.

Ombudsman, Ms Amerdeep Somal, said:

“We welcome the judge’s decision, which brings to a conclusion a protracted case that has spanned a number of years.

“While we acknowledge councils will want to make justified challenges, we will take a robust stance to defend our decisions, which are based on evidence and arrived at after a great deal of careful consideration.

“I am pleased the judge has agreed with our position and understanding of the facts, law and guidance surrounding this case.”

In a world marked by instability, armed conflicts, democratic regressions, and increasingly frequent attacks on civil society, the role of human rights defenders becomes essential in protecting democracy, promoting social justice, and ensuring the respect of every individual’s fundamental rights. They contribute to creating a fairer society by monitoring human rights violations, providing legal and humanitarian assistance, raising public awareness, and influencing public policies.

In many states, human rights defenders are subjected to reprisals, intimidation, violence, and persecution. Protecting them is crucial for maintaining a free and fair society. International organizations, such as the UN and the Council of Europe, constantly emphasize the need for effective protection mechanisms for these crucial actors of democracy. Many abuses would remain unknown and unpunished without their activity, and democratic progress would be seriously affected.

In the Republic of Moldova, human rights defenders (HRDs) face multiple challenges that affect their activities.

Intimidation and harassment: HRDs and journalists are often victims of smear campaigns and harassment. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders mentioned that they face intimidation and threats, especially when criticizing certain decisions.

Limited access to information: Journalists and other defenders encounter difficulties in obtaining information of public interest, which affects their ability to inform society accurately.

Lack of official status: Currently, HRDs in the Republic of Moldova do not have recognized official status, limiting their legal protection and formal recognition of their activities.

To address these challenges, the People’s Advocate Office (PAO) in the Republic of Moldova has initiated a crucial step to protect human rights defenders. After an extensive public consultation process over the past two years with representatives of authorities, civil society, media, and academia, the People’s Advocates have developed a Concept that aims to improve legislation and practices regarding the recognition and protection of human rights defenders. This document has been recently submitted to the Ministry of Justice, suggesting the establishment of an inter-institutional working group to develop a clear and effective regulatory framework in this area.

Human rights defenders are individuals or organizations that promote and protect fundamental human rights, including journalists, civic activists, lawyers, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, and even national human rights institutions.

The concept submitted by PAO suggests:

• Clearly defining the status of human rights defenders and the criteria for recognition;
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• Establishing a protection mechanism in emergencies, especially when the state itself violates human rights;
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• Ensuring free access to information and transparency for the media and NGOs;
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• Recognizing and protecting child human rights defenders, whose involvement must be guaranteed by the state;
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• Introducing clear sanctions for those who threaten or attack human rights defenders;
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• Establish an inter-institutional cooperation mechanism for PAO, the Ministry of Justice, and civil society to collaborate effectively in implementing these measures.

The People’s Advocate, Ceslav Panico, emphasized:

“Human rights defenders are essential for a healthy democracy. However, in many countries in our region, they are intimidated, harassed, or even persecuted. Or, even more, labeled and assigned the status of “foreign influence agents”. The Republic of Moldova must be a positive example in the region and ensure a solid legislative framework and effective protection mechanisms for protecting them, whether we are talking about civil society organizations, journalists, civic activists, or lawyers”.

The People’s Advocate on the Rights of the Child, Vasile Coroi, added:

“Child human rights defenders are a reality. Recognizing them through the Law on the rights of the child is an important step, but we need additional regulations to empower and protect them”.

The People’s Advocates suggest the creation of a working group under the coordination of the Ministry of Justice, consisting of representatives of authorities, civil society, and international experts, to analyze existing legislation and propose a clear and effective regulatory framework for protecting human rights defenders.

PAO urges all responsible institutions and civil society to support this initiative, considering that human rights defenders are the backbone of democracy and the guarantors of respecting fundamental rights.

For more details, access the Human Rights Defenders Concept (https://ombudsman.md/post-document/concept-privind-aparatorii-drepturilor-omului/) and the proposal for legislation improvement submitted to the Ministry of Justice: (https://ombudsman.md/post-document/propunere-de-perfectionare-a-legislatiei-in-temeiul-art-27-lit-a-din-legea-cu-privire-la-avocatul-poporuluiombudsman-nr-52-2014/)

For more information, feel free to contact Svetlana Rusu (0600 026 44).

A hospital’s failure to diagnose a woman’s cancer denied her precious time with her family, England’s Health Ombudsman has found.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is urging hospitals to improve processes to avoid delays in diagnosis.

A woman underwent a CT scan at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust towards the end of November 2017 to investigate a potential liver problem.

While nothing significant was found on her liver, the scan revealed a nodule – a small dense area - and a possible pulmonary embolism on her left lung.

In December, the woman was referred to a clinic to treat the pulmonary embolism. The consultant at the clinic wrote to her GP asking she be referred for another CT scan three months later to investigate the nodule. This was not done and a review in mid-April 2018 revealed the follow-up scan had not been carried out.

An urgent CT scan towards the end of May 2018 revealed the woman had lung cancer, of which she died aged 81 in February 2019.

The woman’s daughter, from Oakham in Rutland, brought her complaint to PHSO.

The Ombudsman found the woman should have been diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2017, around six months earlier.

The Trust should not have passed the matter back to the woman’s GP and did not appropriately follow up the lung nodule’s finding.

Though PHSO cannot say exactly what would have happened, there is evidence the woman may have lived longer if the diagnosis had been made sooner, and this uncertainty about how much longer her mother might have lived has caused her daughter distress.

The Trust had already apologised to the woman, acknowledged its failings and taken action to avoid a reoccurrence for other patients.

However, PHSO recommended the Trust pay the woman £3,300 for the distress it caused. The Trust has complied with this recommendation.

The woman’s daughter, 64, who wishes to remain anonymous, said:

“Right from the diagnosis we were questioning why the scan hadn’t been followed up. It delayed my mum’s treatment for six months, which could have made a difference to how long she lived.

“There were things mum wanted to do that were not ticked off her bucket list because she was too ill or the end came up sooner than we thought. It was so upsetting.

“Time was taken away where we could have spent more quality time together. It wouldn’t have been years I don’t think, but who knows.

“Without the Ombudsman I wouldn’t have got where I am today. The advice I got from the Ombudsman was invaluable.

“I can’t express enough my gratitude to the caseworker and all the team for looking into things, not just my case, anybody’s case, because without their help we wouldn’t get anywhere.

“I promised my mum that I would go through with a complaint to find out what went wrong and in my mind, I’ve fulfilled that now for my mum.”

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rebecca Hilsenrath said:

“Cancer has or will at some stage of our lives affect almost all of us either by being diagnosed with the disease ourselves or knowing somebody who has. This case had a tragic outcome. Even though the mother’s cancer was terminal at the point she sought medical assistance, the delay in her diagnosis meant important time with her family was lost and this can never be restored.”

Earlier this year, the Ombudsman warned cancer patients could be put at risk because of overstretched and exhausted staff working in a system at breaking point and delays in diagnosis and treatment.

And in 2021, PHSO published a report called Unlocking Solutions in Imaging about recurrent failings in the way X-rays and scans are reported on and followed up across the NHS service.

Rebecca Hilsenrath added:

 “We have seen failings in multiple aspects of cancer care in the past. It is important that when mistakes are identified in healthcare, they are acted upon, and improvements made in order to deliver a better service for all. In this case, we welcome an acknowledgement of failings and improvements made by this Trust. A key aspect of our service to the public is about encouraging learning from complaints and we hope this means others will not have to experience the same issues again.”