Following an invitation from the European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA), the Commissioner for Administration and the Protection of Human Rights submitted a successful proposal, to participate, as Cyprus’s National Human Rights Institution (NHRI), in a regional Project that aims to provide support to NHRIs of member states of the European Union, in monitoring fundamental rights and the fundamental rights aspects of the rule of law.

The participants to the Project, which is funded by the EEA and Norway Grants, are the FRA, as lead partner, and the NHRIs of Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria and Latvia, as beneficiary partners. Also, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) participates in the Project as an expertise partner.


The Project, which is expected to be completed by February 29th 2024, covers the following three (3) Work Packages:

Work Package 1: «Enhancing the use of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights by NHRIs and strengthening their role in its enforcement at national level, including by building the capacity of NHRI staff in using EU fundamental rights law in their work».

Work Package 2: «Strengthening NHRIs’ capacity in monitoring fundamental rights and the rule of law, by increasing their engagement with relevant EU mechanisms and by promoting national dialogues on fundamental rights and the rule of law».

Work Package 3: «Developing the capacity of NHRIs to monitor fundamental rights compliance in the implementation of EU funds, as foreseen by newly applicable EU law».

For the purposes of the implementation of the Project, it is planned to carry out studies and draw up a number of Reports with relevant recommendations, in relation to the following topics:

• à The present fundamental rights situation in Cyprus, and the potential for strengthening it through a stronger use of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

• à An overview of the essential national human rights structures, their mandates and scope of action, including their interlinkages with EU frameworks and international human rights mechanisms.

• à The use of Charter in Cyprus and a collection of promising practices and examples on how the Cyprus NHRI has engaged with the Charter.

• à The strengthening of the NHRI’s capacity to report on the state of Rule of Law in Cyprus and the improvement of its methodology and national data collection on rule of law reporting, including monitoring over time.

• à Analysis and guidance on how the NHRI may exercise its role in monitoring fundamental rights compliance in the implementation of EU funds in Cyprus.

The Project also provides for the organization of educational/training seminars regarding the application of the EU’s human rights Law and, in particular, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The seminars will be offered to both staff of the Office of the Commissioner for Administration and the Protection of Human Rights, and, to other target groups that have been identified (such as legal practitioners and Officers of selected Public Authorities).

It is pointed out that FRA, as the lead partner, oversees the overall implementation of the project, promotes cooperation between the partners and provides advice and guidance to participating NHRIs on project activities and outputs.

Organization of a Media Campaign on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, in the framework of implementing a Regional Project, funded by the EEA and Norway Grants

Organization of capacity building seminars in the framework of implementing a Regional Project, funded by the EEA and Norway Grants

Collecting promising practices on NHRI’s Charter use

Baseline Report on the potential for strengthening the fundamental rights situation through a stronger use of the Charter

Mapping of national human rights structures in Cyprus

The role of national bodies with a human rights remit in ensuring fundamental rights compliance of EU funds

The Annual Report of the Public Services Ombudsman for the year ending 31st December 2022 was laid in Parliament on Wednesday 22nd November 2023. Please click on image below to view report. 

El Diputado del Común, Rafael Yanes, en nombre de todo el personal de la Institución, ha expresado su profunda tristeza ante el fallecimiento de Jerónimo Saavedra.

“Su fallecimiento deja un vacío difícil de cubrir. Nuestra Comunidad Autónoma no se entiende sin Jerónimo Saavedra, quien fue un referente en la vida social y política de Canarias. Como Diputado del Común llevó a cabo una importante tarea en la defensa de los derechos de las personas más vulnerables y, para mí, ha sido un verdadero honor sustituirlo. Siempre se mostró dispuesto a aconsejarme desde su reconocida experiencia y capacidad de diálogo”.

Our previous Equality Plan covered the period from 2019 to 2022. It identified 11 Equality Objectives, related to how we deliver our complaints service, how we embed equality considerations into our improvement work and how we work as an employer. In 2020, we also developed our ‘Race and Ethnicity at Work Charter’. In 2022, we extended the Plan and the Charter for a year, as we started to work on our new Strategic Plan setting the direction for the office for 2023- 2026.

We completed many actions that we had committed to under the Plan and the Charter. However, we did not have the impact that we wanted to have in all respects.

We developed our Equality Plan to support the delivery of our new Strategic Plan 2023-2026 and its mission: to have a positive impact on people and public services in Wales. Under the Plan, we will:

• Ensure that we support people with additional access needs to use our complaints service.
• Help to improve our services and impact through better engagement
  with equality groups.
• Raise public awareness of the office and its role and powers among
  groups under-represented among our complainants.
• Maintain and develop more accessible information explaining who we
  are and how we work.
• Through our Complaints Standards role, seek to influence positively
  the accessibility of local complaints processes.
• Work to improve representation of target groups among our workforce.
• Continue to monitor our gender pay gap and identify any opportunities to reduce it further.

We are grateful to all who contributed to creating this Plan and are looking forward to putting it to work!

To read the Plan (also as Easy Read) click here.

21/11/2023

Corporate publications | Equality |

Il 15 dicembre 2023 alle ore 10.30 presso la Camera dei Deputati, Sala Stampa, Via della Missione, 4, si terrà un evento straordinario organizzato dalla Difesa Civica Italiana.

L’iniziativa, dal titolo “A 75 anni dalla Dichiarazione dei Diritti Umani: IL DIFENSORE CIVICO PER LA TUTELA E LA PROMOZIONE DEI DIRITTI, DELLA PARTECIPAZIONE E DELLA CITTADINANZA ATTIVA”, rappresenta un momento di rilevanza per condividere conoscenze ed esperienze sul ruolo essenziale del Difensore Civico nella società contemporanea.

L’evento è aperto a Deputati, tecnici, docenti universitari e a tutti coloro che sono interessati a promuovere la difesa dei diritti e la cittadinanza attiva.

Questa giornata costituirà un’occasione significativa per riflettere sul passato, valutare la situazione attuale e delineare il ruolo cruciale del Difensore Civico nella promozione e tutela dei diritti fondamentali dei cittadini.