We know that many members of the public are concerned about how they, or their loved ones, acquired COVID-19 while receiving care in NHS settings such as hospitals. A COVID-19 infection acquired in an NHS setting is called ‘nosocomial’ COVID-19.

We have published on our website guidance to explain how we consider complaints about hospital-acquired COVID-19.

A brief overview of our approach can be found here.

In addition this factsheet answers some frequently asked questions about how the NHS and our office look at complaints about nosocomial COVID-19.

The Human Rights Ombudspersons of Bosnia and Herzegovina condemn in the strongest terms the attack against NGO activists, journalists, LGBT persons and citizens that took place in Banja Luka last weekend.

Stressing the severity of the incident in the broader context of promoting the rule of law, protecting human rights defenders, journalists and members of any groups with attitudes different from attitudes of the majority, IHROBiH would like to draw attention of all competent institutions to its unwavering, final and substantial position according to which:

Journalists perform a mission of wider social importance, which is timely, true and complete information of the public, as a prerequisite of democracy (Special Report on the Position of Journalists and Cases of Threats Made against Journalists).

Public office holders should more openly step out to protect the rights of the LGBT population concerning both individual incidents and in general;

Members of the LGBT community must be able to hold gatherings without any fear of being physically attacked by their opposition (Special Report on the Rights of LGBT Persons);

as well as

The exercise of the right to freedom of assembly imposes positive obligations on the competent authorities, i.e. to take measures with a view to ensuring peaceful enjoyment of rights, including, primarily, protecting and assisting (Special Report on the Right to Peaceful Assembly).

In addition to drafting special reports, sending recommendations and proposals to amend the legislative framework, IHROBiH has taken a number of preventive and promotional activities, including training law enforcement officers to work with the LGBT community and participation in training programmes for judicial office holders to work with hate crime cases.

At the same time, IHROBiH calls on all competent institutions, including, in the first place, criminal prosecution bodies, to take measures falling within their respective competences as a matter of priority, with a view to ensuring security and right to work and exercising fundamental human rights of all citizens, as guaranteed by the Constitution and international conventions directly applied in the domestic legal system.

While respecting the principle of independence of the judiciary, IHROBiH expresses its hope that judicial institutions will adequately assess the element of hatred as a qualifying circumstance in cases of determining the criminal responsibility of any participant in the said events.

Views of the Human Rights Defenders Memorial at Iveagh Gardens in Dublin, Ireland

“The growing gap between the risks and the obstacles faced by human rights defenders in Europe and the standards States have agreed to must be a call to action”, says Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović upon the release today of a report on a round-table with human rights defenders from across Europe, held in Dublin in October 2022.

Reflecting the interventions of the participants, the report highlights how the prioritisation of national security and public safety concerns over human rights, in a context of overlapping crises such as growing inequalities compounded by the environmental crisis, the pandemic, and the rise in populist governments and anti-rights agendas, has hindered human rights defence and civic activism.

In view of the alarming deterioration of the situation of human rights defenders in Europe, the Commissioner urges member states of the Council of Europe to recommit to and implement, in good faith, human rights standards that recognise their prime responsibility to protect human rights defenders.

In her report, she also sets out the necessary political, legal and practical measures which states should take to ensure that human rights defenders are able to work free from hindrance and insecurity. As a matter of priority, state authorities should denounce violence and any form of intimidation directed against human rights defenders, and refrain from administrative and judicial harassment, including SLAPPs, with the intention to impede their legitimate activities or silence them. They should guarantee their exercise of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association and ensure accountability for any human rights violation against human rights defenders, including by non-state actors.

States should also guarantee human rights defenders’ effective participation in public affairs and unhindered access to funding, including from foreign sources. It is equally essential that states recognise and publicly acknowledge the essential contribution human rights defenders make to the promotion and protection of groups such as women, children, LGBTI people, migrants and ethnic minorities and refrain from misusing criminal proceedings against human rights defenders for providing humanitarian assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

With regard to the situation of human rights defenders in the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the Commissioner urges member states to provide them with more support, including the provision of personal protective and communication equipment andespecially for those who continue to operate in areas affected by the hostilities, adequate financial aid and technological assistance in documenting human rights violations, and psychological support.  She also reiterates the need to better support Russian and Belarusian civil society and human rights defenders. 

“Unprecedented challenges make the work of human rights defenders ever more crucial to the preservation of the democratic fabric of our societies. Solidarity with and among human rights defenders is more imperative than ever.”

• Read the report on the Round-table "Human Rights Defenders in the Council of Europe area in times of crisis"

“It is essential that parliamentarians prevent legislation that is incompatible with the United Kingdom’s international obligations being passed”, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, in her letter to the House of Commons and the House of Lords about the “Illegal Immigration Bill”, published today.

The Commissioner warns that “the Bill’s provisions create clear and direct tension with well-established and fundamental human rights standards”.

By preventing people who arrive irregularly in the UK from having their asylum claims assessed, the Bill would strip away one of the essential building blocks of the protection system. “Passing the Bill would add to the already significant regression in the protection of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the UK in the last few years”, the Commissioner stresses.

Various elements of the Bill that are of concern to the Commissioner are highlighted, including the lack of guarantees that objections to removal would be assessed fully in accordance with the standards set out in the ECHR, the exclusion of most potential victims of trafficking in human beings from modern slavery protections, the widespread powers of detention, and strict limits on judicial challenges to detention. She also warns that the Bill would reverse progress made in reducing the harmful practice of detaining children.

The Commissioner further observes the risk that the Bill would leave potentially large numbers of people in legal limbo and reiterates the importance of safe and legal routes as a credible alternative to dangerous, irregular Channel crossings. However, providing a credible alternative means that the UK government should not wait to expand such safe and legal routes only after boats have stopped arriving, and that a framework should be put in place to enable those who have a potentially legitimate claim to protection or stay on other grounds in the UK can make such a claim from France.

• Read the Commissioner's letter addressed to the House of Commons and the House of Lords

La adjunta de Igualdad y Violencia de Género, Beatriz Barrera, participó en el encuentro que se celebró en el Auditorio Francisco Álvarez Abrante, La Perdoma en La Orotava

La adjunta de Igualdad y Violencia de Género, Beatriz Barrera, participó en el II Encuentro de la Mesa de Igualdad del CEIP Santa Teresa de Jesús, que tuvo como objetivo principal, dar a conocer al alumnado de Primaria (de 6 a 13 años), la figura y la historia de Clara Campoamor.

En este marco, Barrera como miembro de la mesa redonda, intervino para dar un pequeño testimonio sobre su vida y aprovechó para agradecer “ha sido un acto emocionante, divertido y único”, y destacar que “es fundamental trabajar la igualdad, con la infancia y la adolescencia, porque ellos son el futuro de nuestra sociedad”.

El acto se celebró en el Auditorio Francisco Álvarez Abrante, La Perdoma en La Orotava – Tenerife.