International matters

The Ombudsman Board has been standing up for democracy and the rule of law for years on an international level; it actively supports projects in the field of human rights and uses bilateral contacts as a valuable means of exchanging information and experience with ombudsman institutions around the world.

International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.)

The International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.) is an independent and non-political inter­national organisation and the only globally active representation of the interests of independent administrative monitoring bodies. Through its activities, it promotes the worldwide exchange of ideas and experience between ombudsman institutions. The I.O.I. was founded in 1978 and has regional groups in Africa, Asia, Australia and in the Pacific Ocean, in the Caribbean and Latin America as well as in North America and Europe. The roughly 140 I.O.I. members are national, regional, and local ombudsman institutions from about 75 countries.

Since September 2009, the General Secretariat of the I.O.I. has permanently settled in Vienna at the seat of the Ombudsman Board. The General Secretariat is always directed by a member of the Ombudsman Board; at present, Dr. Peter Kostelka holds the position of Secretary General.

The move to Vienna is also accompanied by a new focus as to content. In the future, not only is the informal exchange of opinions between ombudsman institutions to be intensified; best practice models and benchmarks for fair dealings with the people by the administration are also to be developed to an increased extent. The first concrete projects concern the area of training, research, and cooperations with other international organi­sations.

International activities

The Ombudsman Board is a reliable partner for the protection of human rights and the development of the rule of law at the European and international level. Accordingly, its members, but also its staff, have been actively participating in the most varied projects of the Council of Europe for years.

The Ombudsman Board also pursues the goal of intensifying the international transfer of know-how. Staff members of ombudsman institutions are repeatedly guests in the offices of hte Austrian Ombudsman Board in order to become acquainted with the methods of processing complaints used by the Ombudsman Board and the basics of electronic file management.

The exchange and dissemination of expertise also plays an important role in the European context. As an example, within the framework of an EU twinning project, the Ombudsman Board supported the ombudsman institution created in Serbia by sending an expert. The staff also participate in the regular networking with the European Ombudsman and are active in his European network for ombudspersons.

International reports

Once a year, the Ombudsman Board submits a comprehensive annual report to the National Council and the Federal Council and indicates the focuses of the examination activities in the individual Federal Ministries for the members. In seven provinces, it also examines the entire administration at the provincial and municipal level. Here, too, the Ombudsman Board regularly summarises the results of its investigative proceedings in reports.

For these international partner organisations and institutions, an international version of the annual report is available in English. A special focus of this report is on cases that relate to basic rights.