D. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES

Transcription

1 D. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES 1. Introduction Establishment of free legal aid in Serbia, especially in the Vojvodina region Implementation of the in-court representation service Follow-up workshops on the legal counselling and in-court representation programs Press conference to present project results and statistics for 2008 and Joint project with the OSCE (The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) to support the Serbian Ombudsman in the realms of children s affairs and persons deprived of liberty Study visit to the Catalan Ombudsman by staff members devoted to children s affairs and persons deprived of liberty Working session in Serbia Institutional visit by a delegation of the Catalan Ombudsman and Parliament of Catalonia to Serbia Participation in activities organized by other institutions Workshop in Athens (Greece) on the environment held by the Greek Ombudsman within the Eunomia Project Initial meeting in Belgrade (Serbia) of the Twinning Project with the Serbian Ombudsman, led by the Greek and Dutch Ombudsmen

2 SÍNDIC - INFORME AL PARLAMENT Introduction The Catalan Ombudsman institution has continued in its international cooperation efforts, devoting a portion of its staff and budget to carry out such projects, as a result of the will to contribute to building an international community that is safer, fairer and based on solidarity. This economic contribution has progressively grown to its current level of over 0.7% of the annual budget. The Catalan Ombudsman also benefits from the resources of the Catalan Development Cooperation Agency (ACCD), the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID) and other international organizations such as the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Mission to Serbia, which co-finances its projects. With this effort, the Catalan Ombudsman aims to strengthen the Rule of Law, the administration of justice and the promotion and defence of human rights in other countries through specific projects, exchange study visits, and permanent technical advice to public institutions of other countries. From the outset, the Catalan Ombudsman s cooperation activity has mostly taken place in the Balkans, especially Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, where the institution has worked with Ombudsman institutions, members of parliament, judges, public prosecutors, attorneys and other government officers. To mark the 10th anniversary of the cooperation project implementation, an informative publication is being prepared to present and describe the work done in this field over the past 10 years. It will be published and distributed in early The projects that the Catalan Ombudsman took part in over 2009 were, first, those for free legal aid in Vojvodina (Serbia), with the co-financing of the ACCD and AECID, and second, those for support of the Serbian Ombudsman in the realms of children s affairs and persons deprived of freedom, with the economic support of the OSCE mission to Serbia and the AECID. In addition to these activities, especially noteworthy was the institutional visit to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina made by a parliamentary delegation of the Catalan Ombudsman Committee with representatives of the Catalan Ombudsman institution. The Catalan Ombudsman also took part in a European twinning project with the Serbian Ombudsman, led by the Greek and Dutch Ombudsmen, and a workshop on the environment held within the Eunomia Project, carried out by the Greek Ombudsman. A more detailed description of the cooperation activities conducted throughout 2009 follows. 2. Establishment of free legal aid in Serbia, especially in the Vojvodina region This project, launched in 2008, with funding from the ACCD (Catalan Development Cooperation Agency) and the AECID (Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency), is articulated along two lines of work: one, the establishment of free legal advice and in-court representation services throughout the entire territory of Vojvodina autonomous province, and two, contribution to the institutionalization of free legal aid in Serbian territory through the awareness-raising activities addressed to Serbian authorities. It is worth remembering that the model of free legal aid promoted by the Catalan Ombudsman in Serbia is based on the Spanish system. As such, it is made up of two services: legal counselling and in-court representation. The former consists of providing legal advice free of charge to all citizens who address the service. The latter allows citizens who can prove a lack of sufficient financial resources to be provided with the services of an attorney in court, free of charge. The first line of work, the establishment of the services, makes for an advancement over the Catalan Ombudsman s previous efforts in this field. A qualitative leap has been made in two ways: assumption of the responsibility for financing the in-court representation service by the administration of the autonomous province (and no longer by the municipal administration) and extension of the services throughout the entire province. Thanks to their geographic distribution, the fourteen services open throughout Vojvodina provide coverage to all of the autonomous province s citizens. For this activity in Vojvodina, the Catalan Ombudsman, together with the ACCD and the AECID, has taken responsibility for the partial financing of the in-court representation, with the Executive Council of Vojvodina acting as co-financier. Specifically, the AECID and ACCD finance the first 1,000 cases of in-court representation in equal shares. The next 1,000 cases are financed by the Executive Council of Vojvodina. As regards the legal advice

3 2 service, the Catalan Ombudsman is promoting the establishment of services that complement the present offering, with the aim of sufficiently covering the territory of Vojvodina. These legal advice services are always financed by the respective local councils and provided, as with the in-court representation service, by the Vojvodina Bar Association. The Catalan Ombudsman is responsible for covering the administrative and logistic expenses derived from the project. The fact that the Executive Council covers the financing of the in-court representation service means that any citizen of Vojvodina may benefit from it, regardless of their municipality of residence, as long as they meet the necessary economic requisites. The ultimate aim of the activity is to show that the free legal aid model promoted since 2002 and up to the present in different points of Serbia and later extrapolated to Vojvodina can work as a comprehensive system applied to a supramunicipal territory (Vojvodina) which, in this case, also stands for 27% of Serbia s total population. By showing that the model promoted by the Catalan Ombudsman is valid as a complete system applied to a supramunicipal territory, it is being demonstrated, on a small scale, that the system can work throughout Serbia. It is in connection with this idea that the second line of activity, the contribution to the institutionalization of free legal aid in Serbia, is being carried out. To do so, project coordinators have held meetings with Marko Karadzic, Vice-Minister of Human Rights and Dragana Lukic, Vice-Minister of European Integration and International Projects of the Serbian Ministry of Justice, with the goal of informing them on the evolution of the project and its possible repercussion on the draft bill on this subject matter now being prepared in Serbia. Marko Karadzic expressed a keen interest in giving the project visibility. Dragana Lukic underscored the fact that the Catalan Ombudsman s contribution would be key in drafting the Free Legal Aid Act. The Catalan Ombudsman has also written a report on the tasks carried out in free legal aid in Serbia, and has sent it, in addition to the authorities mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, to the Office of EU Integration of the Serbian government and the Standing Conference of Serbian Cities and Towns. 2.1 Implementation of the in-court representation service A total of 13 legal advice services were opened in Vojvodina throughout 2008, with one more opening in 2009 within phase one of the project. The second phase of the project began with the implementation of the in-court representation service, beginning in the second half of The Catalan Ombudsman announces, during a press conference in Novi Sad, the implementation of an in-court representation program and reports on the legal advice services The implementation of the in-court representation service throughout the Vojvodina region has led to the creation of twenty evaluation committees that handle the applications presented by citizens seeking an in-court legal representative. The application forms are collected at the legal advice service points and local councils of Vojvodina. Once completed, they must be presented, along with the documentation accrediting the citizen s economic situation, to one of the twenty local councils where an evaluation committee is headquartered. These committees are made up by representatives of the Bar Association and Administration. They decide on the appointment of an in-court legal representative, unless the applicant exceeds the income limit set by the Administration, or their case is judicially unsustainable in a court of law. In other words, it lacks legal grounds that would make it a viable court case. 2.2 Follow-up workshops on the legal counselling and in-court representation programs The project coordinators, along with those responsible for the project from the Vojvodina Executive Council and Vojvodina Bar Association held followup workshops on the legal advice and in-court representation services in Novi Sad in July and

4 SÍNDIC - INFORME AL PARLAMENT November. The events were aimed at the attorneys and Administration staff members involved in providing both of these services. The workshops were an opportunity to work out possible shortcomings in the provision of the services, and specifically as regards the in-court representation service, to set up the evaluation committees on the procedure to be followed. 2.3 Press conference to present project results and statistics for 2008 and 2009 Laura Díez, Deputy Ombudswoman, took part in the press conference held in Novi Said, capital of Vojvodina on December 11. The press conference was to disseminate the results achieved within the project up until then, and present the statistics on the legal advice service from the years 2008 and 2009, and the in-court representation service from Laura Díez underscored the qualitative advancement achieved with this project, thanks to its supramunicipal nature and universal scope throughout the entire territory of Vojvodina. She also highlighted sustainability as the key to the project, as its permanence over time is guaranteed by the Serbian administration s assumption of the costs, thus allowing it to be considered an established system, not just a project. The press conference was held in the seat of the Vojvodina Executive Council, and was participated in by representatives of the Council and Bar Association of Vojvodina. A dossier with project statistics was distributed during the press conference. Over 2008, and up to the month of October, 2009, in all 14 participating local councils, a total of 2,211 people had been assisted through the legal advice services, 57% of whom were women. Of the total number of persons assisted, the largest group (41%) were from the ranks of the unemployed. In terms of the subject matters dealt with, 40% of cases in which legal advice was given were from the civil law jurisdiction. As for the in-court representation, 66% of the 311 applications for free legal representation accepted and processed from May 4 to October 30 throughout Vojvodina were filed by women. A total of 78% of the applications were presented by unemployed citizens. Cases handled through free in-court representation mostly belonged to the civil law jurisdiction (77%). Labour law was the next-most frequent jurisdiction by number of cases (12%). Since the project s beginnings, 2,211 people have been assisted. A total of 311 in-court representation applications have been processed in six months time Thanks to this project, Vojvodina has a comprehensive free legal aid system that is coordinated, consistent, economically sustainable and publicly funded. It is fair to say that the Vojvodina experience has provided a solid foundation on which a free legal aid system can be implemented for all Serbia. 3. Joint project with the OSCE (The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) to support the Serbian Ombudsman in the realms of children s affairs and persons deprived of liberty The 2008 Annual Report to Parliament outlined the tasks carried out that year as part of an initial project to support the Serbian Ombudsman, which made the Catalan Ombudsman institution the first international one to offer comprehensive support to its Serbian peer. As a result of the good results achieved with that initiative, the Catalan Ombudsman and the OSCE Mission to Serbia signed another memorandum of understanding, with a view to strengthening two specific areas of the Serbian institution, that devoted to persons deprived of liberty, and the one devoted to children s rights, on May 11, The project, which is planned to be carried out until September 2010 with co-financing from the AECID (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation), calls for study visits to Catalonia and work meetings in Serbia, with a view to achieving the following specific results: a specialized Ombudsman website for children and young people, educational materials for primary and secondary school students, internal procedural rules to apply to in situ supervision of sites hou-

5 4 sing persons deprived of liberty, a strategic campaign document addressed to persons deprived of liberty and a general communication strategy. The Catalan Ombudsman and the OSCE have signed a new memorandum of understanding to strengthen the areas of children s affairs and persons deprived of liberty for the Serbian Ombudsman 3.1. Study visit to the Catalan Ombudsman by staff members devoted to children s affairs and persons deprived of liberty A delegation from the Serbian Ombudsman, made up of the deputies responsible for the areas of children s affairs and persons deprived of liberty, visited the Catalan Ombudsman institution from May The purpose of their visit was to gather the information necessary to develop effective methodology for promotion of the Ombudsman s activities in the area of children, in addition to establishing proper work procedures for supervision in detention and penitentiary centres. The group also included representatives from the Human Rights Department of the OSCE Mission to Serbia. Before the study visit, participants received Serbian translations of all working documents necessary for the meetings: promotional material for the Catalan Ombudsman in prisons and children s affairs, internal communication strategy documents and map of the children s website, in addition to other documents. Following some joint sessions on the Catalan Ombudsman s internal and external communication policy and a visit to Parliament, the working sessions on the topics of children s affairs and prisons and detention centres were conducted simultaneously. In children s affairs, the meetings focused on the creation and design of the website, the communication strategy and educational material for schools. The Talaia minor care centre was also visited. The group devoted to persons deprived of liberty discussed the methodology for visits to prisons and detention centres, as well as the communication strategy employed with inmates and persons deprived of liberty. This group also visited the Can Brians Penitentiary Centre. The work methodology and time frames in which to prepare the documents were established in the study visit session on conclusions Working session in Serbia The task force responsible for drawing up methodology for visits to institutions housing persons deprived of liberty met in Belgrade with Jordi Reixach, advisor the Catalan Ombudsman on prisons, and Arantxa Díaz, project coordinator, on July 8 and 9. The purpose of the meeting was to hold a detailed discussion on the draft document that the Serbian task force had sent to the Catalan Ombudsman in June. It was concluded that this methodology, the final version of which was approved during these working sessions, would be considered final upon conclusion of the project in order to facilitate any necessary adjustments during its implementation. Another document drawn up by the same group was discussed during these working sessions held in July: the strategy for promotion and protection of persons deprived of liberty through creation of a prevention mechanism, in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment. Fina Brunet, Director of Communication and Cabinet, and Judit Salas, Project Coordinator, met in Belgrade on October 7 and 8 with the Deputy Serbian Ombudswoman for Children s Rights and her staff, to discuss the content of the proposed website developed by the Serbian institution. General strategic communication subjects were also discussed. The discussion on the proposed website focused above all on design issues, repositioning of contents, and editing certain sections. The most appropriate communication style for the website target -children and young people- was also discussed. The conclusions reached in October made it possible to arrive at a version of the proposal so that an external provider could be contracted to create the website before year-end.

6 SÍNDIC - INFORME AL PARLAMENT Institutional visit by a delegation of the Catalan Ombudsman and Parliament of Catalonia to Serbia A delegation of the Catalan Ombudsman and Parliament of Catalonia visited Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from March 11 to 15. The delegation was made up of the Catalan Ombudsman, Rafael Ribó; the director of Social Affairs and Parliamentary Relations, Maria Jesús Larios; the International Relations and Cooperation Officer, Judit Salas; the cooperation project coordinator, Arantxa Díaz and the following MP s from the Catalan Ombudsman Committee of Parliament: committee chairwoman, Belén Pajares (PPC); Pilar Pifarré (CiU), Josep Casajuana (PSC-CpC), Salvador Milán (ICV-EUiA) and Antonio Robles (Mixed Group). Francesca Guardiola, Parliamentary Services Officer, also accompanied the delegation. As far as Serbia was concerned, the visit s objective was to familiarize the members of parliament with the free legal aid project in Vojvodina and the Serbian Ombudsman institutions that the Catalan Ombudsman collaborates with. Further, visibility was to be given to the Vojvodina free legal aid project, and the free legal aid services disseminated among possible users. This aim was met by holding the press conference on March 12, as described in section 2.1. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the goal was to give the Catalan MP s first-hand contact with the Bosnian Ombudsman institutions. In Belgrade, on March 11, the Catalan delegation met with the Serbian ombudsman and his staff in the institution s head offices, and with the Belgrade Ombudsman in the plenary seat of the Belgrade Municipal Government. In these meetings, the Catalan MP s got to know the role played by these two institutions for the defence of rights, and the main problems faced by citizens in their relations with the Administration. The Vojvodinian Ombudsman and a delegation of local MP s received the Catalan delegation on March 12 in Novi Sad, in the seat of the Parliament of Vojvodina. The meetings with the Vojvodinian institutions showed the interest aroused in Vojvodina by Catalonia, and how the institutions of this Serbian autonomous province had taken their inspiration from the Catalan case to create their ombudsman organization. Integration into the EU and the role of regions in this ambit were among the topics discussed. Following the meeting, a press conference was held in the seat of the Vojvodina Executive Council (Vojvodinian Government) to discuss the free legal aid project. The Catalan Ombudsman took part, and the Catalan MP s were also on hand. The day was wrapped up with a dinner held by the Spanish Ambassador at his official residence in Belgrade. Catalan MP s visit Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to get a first-hand look at the work carried out there by the Catalan Ombudsman The next day, a meeting was held in Sremski Karlovci (Vojvodina), with the mayor, head of the legal advice service, and the attorneys providing the service in this municipality. The visit made it possible to know in practical terms how the legal advice service worked in one of the 14 municipalities where the service has been opened, and discuss with its supervisors the benefits it brings to citizens. The delegation travelled to Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, on the evening of the 13th. The next day, the delegates met with three office-holders of the Bosnia-Herzegovina State Ombudsman and members of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the same day, a meeting was held with the three office-holders of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Federation Ombudsman Institution, the oldest such institution of the country, which began its activity in 1995, with the armed conflict still underway. The meetings with the Bosnian Ombudsmen helped provide a broader view of the socio-political conditions in which these institutions work, and the institutional restructuring faced by Bosnia to strengthen its state-level organizations. Reference was also made to the actions taken in cases of child abuse promoted by the Catalan Ombudsman in Bosnia, and discussed in the 2008 Report to Parliament. The delegation concluded its stay with a dinner offered by the Spanish ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Overall, the study visit made it possible to meet the two-fold objective of familiarizing MP s with the task that the Catalan Ombudsman has carried out, and continues to carry out, in these two countries of the former Yugoslavia, and to learn about the reality of the countries from the institutions themselves.

7 6 5. Participation in activities organized by other institutions 5.1 Workshop in Athens (Greece) on the environment held by the Greek Ombudsman within the Eunomia Project Ombudsman Advisor Elisenda Padrós took part in a workshop on the Ombudsman and environmental protection offered by the Greek Ombudsman in Athens, on 22 and 23 June, within the framework of the Ombudsman institutions from southeast Europe called Eunomia, also participated in by the European Ombudsman and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. The work was organized around two round table discussions and a session devoted to presentation and analysis of case studies. The Catalan Ombudsman advisor took part in the second round table discussion, devoted to mediation and sensitization in environmental protection. Elisenda Padrós specifically referred to the types of complaints fielded by the Catalan Ombudsman in this subject, and the problems derived from the excessive judicialization of environmental affairs caused by the Administration s lack of initiative. She also discussed mediation cases in which the Catalan Ombudsman had intervened. contribution to the project s initial phase. The Catalan Ombudsman institution s familiarity with the Serbian Ombudsman institution, gained when the Deputy Ombudswoman participated actively in the project to support this institution in 2008, the Catalan Ombudsman delegated the attendance at the Belgrade working sessions to her. The Deputy Ombudswoman made specific contributions to the priorities and strategies defined by the Greek and Dutch Ombudsmen based on the in situ study that she herself had conducted on the strong and weak points of the Serbian institution in Further, she took part in a training session geared to Serbian Ombudsman staff members that was meant to convey the day to day experience in an Ombudsman institution and the strategies to resolve potential conflicts. Aside from the Catalan Ombudsman, representatives from the Ombudsman institutions of Greece, Austria, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Macedonia, Montenegro and Vojvodina played active roles in the workshop. 5.2 Initial meeting in Belgrade (Serbia) of the Twinning Project with the Serbian Ombudsman, led by the Greek and Dutch Ombudsmen Twinning projects are an initiative of the European Commission launched in 1998, whose aim is to achieve cooperation among administrations to help candidate states to strengthen their institutional capacity to implement European community legislation as future EU member states. Within the framework of one such project oriented toward the Serbian Ombudsman, Laura Díez, Deputy Ombudswoman, was in Belgrade on October 12 and 13 to take part in the project launch meeting, meant to lay the groundwork for project operations. As institutions responsible for implementation of the project, the Greek and Dutch Ombudsmen invited office-holders from other peer institutions (Catalonia, Slovenia and Austria) to make a special