Chairman of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Discrimination of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT) Human Rights Inquiry Committee and Member of Parliament Atty. Harun Mertoğlu paid a visit to Chief Ombudsman Mr. Mehmet Akarca. The meeting was also attended by Ombudsmen Ms. Fatma Benli Yalçın, Mr. Abdullah Cengiz Makas, and Mr. Özcan Yıldız.

During the visit, Mr. Akarca presented the 2025 Annual Report of the Ombdusman Institution to Mr. Mertoğlu.

Asylum, migration and borders  Irregular migration, return and immigration detention

On 6 May, FRA gave a presentation on fundamental rights in return operations during a seminar organised by the Cypriot Commissioner for Administration. The seminar targeted the training of monitors and police escorts involved in forced return operations in Cyprus.

It brought together 36 participants not only from the Cypriot Police and the Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) — but also from other authorities involved in return procedures, including the Ministry of Justice and the Cypriot Asylum Agency. 

It aimed at fostering a common understanding of the roles, responsibilities and standards expected during return operations. 

FRA focused on the European legislative and judicial systems for protecting fundamental rights in return operations. FRA also presented its work on returns, with particular emphasis on its recent report drawing conclusions from ten years of monitoring return operations. 

The seminar enabled detailed and constructive discussions on specific fundamental rights risks arising in return operations, particularly relevant to the trends of increase in voluntary returns and the use of commercial flights.

The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia examined the broader issue of unresolved denationalisation proceedings and found that, even more than three decades after the procedures began, the state has still failed to establish an effective system for bringing them to a conclusion. In the Ombudsman’s view, this constitutes a systemic problem that violates the right to equal protection of rights under Article 22 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, as well as the principle of good administration under Article 3 of the Human Rights Ombudsman Act.

According to data from early 2024, 95 denationalisation claims remained unresolved, with administrative units still handling most of the most complex cases. The Ombudsman finds that the key problems have not substantially changed over the past three decades: proceedings continue to take an unreasonably long time, decision-making practices remain inconsistent, cases are repeatedly returned for reconsideration, and administrative units often lack sufficient staffing and professional support.

An additional difficulty arises from the fact that many proceedings have become increasingly complex due to their excessive duration. In numerous cases, the original claimants have already passed away, legal successors have entered the proceedings, and new legal issues relating to citizenship, inheritance, and developments in judicial practice have emerged.

In examining this broader issue, which is important for the protection of human rights, the Ombudsman found that the state lacks a uniform operational model for concluding these proceedings. Administrative units are frequently left to organise their work independently, without clear guidance or systemic support from the Ministry of Public Administration. In some cases, proceedings are handled by officials without the necessary experience, while at the time of the Ombudsman’s review, the so-called specialised group at the Celje Administrative Unit had not even been formally established.

In the Ombudsman’s view, this situation constitutes a systemic failure by the state to fulfil its obligations. While the remaining cases are undoubtedly challenging, this does not justify the fact that, even after more than 30 years, the state has failed to establish an effective, professionally supported, and well-organised system for resolving them. Excessively lengthy proceedings directly affect the legal position of individuals and create legal uncertainty regarding the management of real estate.

The Ombudsman therefore recommended that the Ministry of Public Administration establish a centralised system for resolving the remaining denationalisation proceedings within a single administrative unit, supported by appropriate staffing and financial resources.

The Ministry and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia have followed these recommendations. A special denationalisation organisational unit is currently being established within the Celje Administrative Unit, alongside the creation of an interdepartmental working group that will monitor the completion of the proceedings.

The Ombudsman emphasises that, while these steps confirm the necessity of the Ombudsman’s intervention, they do not diminish the seriousness of the identified violations. The state must ensure that even the most complex proceedings are concluded within a reasonable timeframe and under equal conditions for all.

Five dead in Albanian prisons between the end of January and the beginning of April, at least two from cardiac arrest. With this picture, the Ombudsman, Mr. Endrit Shabani, opened his speech today at the National Council for European Integration.

"The distance between the protocol on paper and the treatment in practice is being measured in lives lost", stressed Mr. Shabani. According to him, the Interim Standards Assessment Report (IBAR) will not measure the number of open chapters, but the degree to which the reforms are felt by the Albanian citizen.

"We have a law against discrimination that is well read in Brussels, European integration begins when an Egyptian child has no obstacles to enrolling in kindergarten, or when a woman is treated the same as any other citizen in a health center," said the Ombudsman.

The same logic was illustrated with the current property compensation scheme, where the former owner receives no less than 10 percent of the current cadastral value.

Mr. Shabani put forward two concrete proposals: first, a dedicated budget increase from the Assembly for the prison and detention system; second, a legal obligation for public institutions to report on the level of implementation of the recommendations of independent institutions.

"We in the independent institutions are the ones who receive complaints when political parties are busy dealing with each other", the Ombudsman underlined.

"This position makes us useful for the European process, because we see problems with the aim of solving them, not using them, and not hiding them", concluded Shabani.

Full speech

On May 8, 2026, the Public Defender of Georgia, Levan Ioseliani, visited day centers of the Georgian Mental Health Association and the Parents' Support NNLE in Tbilisi.

The Public Defender inspected the physical environment of the day centers, spoke with managers and employees, met with beneficiaries, discussed the challenges relating to the promotion of independent living for persons with disabilities, and focused on the importance of education and employment for the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in public life.

Currently, 15 beneficiaries receive services at the day center of Parents' Support. The head of the organization introduced the Public Defender to the specifics of the day center's work, programme, and services offered. He also spoke about the challenges that the center faces in the case of adult persons with disabilities. The insufficient amount of voucher funding for the service and the shortage of necessary staff were named as a particular problem. As a result, adult persons with disabilities who need complex care and behavior management often remain outside the services of the day center. In addition, despite the steps taken towards professional development, employment of persons with disabilities is still rare, which is one of the main prerequisites for ensuring their independent life.

The day center of the Georgian Mental Health Association currently provides psychosocial rehabilitation services to 36 persons with mental health problems. The main challenge is related to the amount of voucher funding for the service, which cannot ensure the employment of all necessary specialists and the attraction of qualified staff, and therefore has a negative impact on the quality of the service. The existing funding cannot provide the beneficiaries with the opportunity to carry out external activities, including excursions or various cultural or sports events, at the appropriate frequency, which is an important component of socialization. Stable employment of beneficiaries at the subsequent stage of their preparation for independent living is a problem. In addition to the ineffectiveness of state programmes, the lack of appropriate readiness in the labour market was also cited as the reason for this.

It is noteworthy that despite the shortage of psychosocial rehabilitation services in the country, the limit of the day center is not fully filled. This is related to the problem of both information dissemination and referral to the service, as well as the low awareness of mental health in society. The visit once again demonstrates the need to strengthen and improve the quality of mental health rehabilitation services, which the Public Defender constantly emphasizes.

The Public Defender of Georgia continues to work to expand and improve the quality of targeted rehabilitation programmes that promote independent living of persons with disabilities, and periodically conducts on-site assessments of the challenges in similar services.