Mauritania 2017

Ombudswoman Lora Vidović participates at the general meeting and annual conference of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) which takes place at the UN Geneva from 6th to 8th March.

It is a gathering of representatives from four networks whereby the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) is represented by the Chair Lora Vidović.

Apart from exchanging experience and good practices the main themes of the meeting include business and human rights, collecting and analysing data relevant to the UN 2030 Agenda as well as conflict prevention and re-establishment of peaceful societies. Ombudswoman Vidović will moderate the panel on protecting and preserving the independence of national human rights institutions.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and UN Human Rights Council's President  Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli take part at the event.

The meeting is organised in cooperation with the Office of the UN High Commissioner (OHCHR); after which a two-day consultations between the UN committees and national human rights institutions are included.

Ombudswoman Lora Vidović was elected as a member of the GANHRI Working Group on Aging on 6 March, 2017 in Geneva. Working group is tasked for making improvement in GANHRI’s member mutual cooperation in the field of protection human rights of elderly as well as for enhancing strategic activities at the international fora including contribution to the UN mechanisms.

As one of two representatives of the European institutions, she was elected at the general meeting of the European network of national human rights institutions (ENNHRI), which she has been chairing since 2016. Eight member Working Group on Aging also consist of NHRI representatives from Asia and Pacific, North and South Americas and Africa.

One of Working Group priorities is advocating for adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. Namely, although human rights are universal and relate to all citizens, the fact that the older persons are not explicitly referred to in the international documents may present a challenge for protection of their rights; therefore implementation of the Convention might contribute to strengthening of their rights.

Students should be enabled to make written applications for the state scholarships not only by electronic way, due to the fact that there is no sufficient quality of Internet links in some parts of Croatia; moreover, the fact is that scholarships relate to poorer socio-economic status which represents an obstacle in the usage of computer equipment. Hence, the deadline for publishing the competition's results, i.e. the rank-list, should be determined more precisely, stated the Ombudswoman Lora Vidović in the opinion sent to the Ministry of Science and Education regarding the Rule Book on conditions and manners of realisation of the rights to the state scholarship based on socio-economic status.

It is also necessary to consider whether the obligation of getting a notarial seal on the statement on behalf of the family members that they do not have personal identification number constitutes too big expense for a student and his family. It is also unclear why the scholarships are delivered in 9 monthly instalments while the academic year lasts 12 months and, it is also unclear on which criteria its amount of 1,200 Kuna is calculated.