On 21-22 May Ombudsman, head of Children Rights Division and lawyer of Prevention Unit meet Children Ombudsmen of Poland and Lithuania and representatives of the Chancellor of Justice Office of Estonia.

Such meetings happen annually and participants discuss topical children rights issues in Poland and Baltic states.  Last year in the meeting in Riga hosted by the Ombudsman of Latvia participants agreed to make a joint comparative analysis study on child maintenance administration systems in Poland and Baltic states. Ombudsman presented prelimenary results of the joint study in today's meeting (handouts of the presentation attached).

Continued maintenance for the child in cases if one or both parents do not share the same household with the child is crucial for sustainable development of inclusive society. Ombudsman stresses that it is a question of values and legal consciousness of the society; and regardless relationship between parents they have the responsibility to maintain their children.

or the occasion of the establishment of the institution, on 30 May, 2018 (Wednesday), the Ombudsman of the Republic of Macedonia will formally mark the anniversary of the institution in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. The holding of this event is under the auspices of the President of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.

On this ceremony, beside the Ombudsman of Republic of Macedonia Mr. Ixhet Memeti, the President of the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Talat Xhaferi, the President of the Government of Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Zoran Zaev, the President of the Association of Ombudsmen of the Mediterranean, Ms. Eranda Balanca, who is also the Ombudsman of Republic of Albania will take part. The European ombudsman, Ms.Emili Ojrajli, will address the ceremony through a video call. On the behalf of the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Ms. Dunja Mijatovic, Ms. Bojana Urumova, the deputy director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe will have her addressing.

Within this celebration, a panel discussion will be held for the beginnings, the progress and the challenges that the Ombudsman’s institution of Republic of Macedonia has faced over the years.

On 29, 30 and 31 May 2018 at Holiday Inn Hotel, the Ombudsman Mr. Ixhet Memeti will host the 10th Meeting of the Association of Mediterranean Ombudsmen (AOM), which this year marks ten years since its establishment.

This year's meeting of the Ombudsmen of the Mediterranean will be dedicated to the social rights of vulnerable groups of citizens, as well as the protection of cultural rights and the environment.

Within this meeting of the Ombudsmen of the Mediterranean, on 29 May 2018, meetings of the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee of the AOM will be held, and on 31 May 2018 the General Assembly will elect new members of the above mentioned committees and the Skopje Declaration will be adopted.

The Seimas Ombudsmen Augustinas Normantas and Raimondas Šukys met with a delegation of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) which is now conducting its fourth cycle of monitoring of public assemblies and Lithuania was included in the ongoing assembly monitoring cycle.

Representatives of the delegation informed the Seimas Ombudsmen that they are planning to monitor freedom of assembly related to the "Rainbow Days 2018" festival in Vilnius, thus assessing Lithuania's readiness to comply with international obligations ensuring the right to freedom of assembly.

Anita Danka, head of the delegation, noted that when monitoring human rights activities, the OSCE / ODIHR places particular emphasis on the need to ground its conclusions with information gathered following the principles of transparency, accuracy and impartiality. Moreover, observers involved in the process of collecting information must adhere to strict principles of objectivity and impartiality.

When collecting information, representatives of the delegation meet with representatives of various institutions, NGOs, national human rights institutions, who can provide more information on the peaceful assembly in the country as well as specific information on the selected monitoring events.

In presenting their activities, the Seimas Ombudsmen noted that the mandate of the Seimas Ombudsmen as a national human rights institution was established in the Law on the Seimas Ombudsmen as of 1 January 2018. Moreover, the Seimas Ombudsmen's Office has received no complaints from the organisers of public events regarding the activities of officials in processing applications for peaceful meetings.

The head of the delegation was interested in legislation regulating the implementation of the freedom of assembly, paying particular attention to the discussion on implementation of provisions 1 and 2 of the Article 6 of the Law on Meetings as well as Article 3 of the same law defining the organisers of the meetings. She was also interested to know how these provisions were implemented and how the procedures of an arrangement of meeting place and time with the representatives of the municipality were working.

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