Dear Mr Panzeri,

Dear Fellow speakers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to be able to speak at this conference and I thank the organisers for the invitation to give the perspective of the Ombudsman as we celebrate the Universal declaration of the rights that all of us have through the simple fact of our humanity.

The document was never supposed to be, and could never be, a static thing and as it moves through time and through change its articles are read through the prism of new realities and new perspectives always facing the challenge of never losing sight of its fundamental values, of its fundamental core.

The creation of the modern Ombudsman office across the world in the last century was one way of realising many of the rights contained in the Declaration. The fundamental role of an Ombudsman is to protect citizens from any abuse of state power when that state is administering its laws and regulations.  It evens out the power imbalance as between citizen and state enabling the realisation of fundamental rights through the use of soft power and – in countries where the rule of law is strong – through the willing compliance of an administration to accept an Ombudsman’s recommendation.  In that way we mirror the soft power intent of the Universal Declaration and if our work is disregarded that acts as an alert for challenges in the wider sphere of fundamental rights compliance.

Some Ombudsmen in Europe and around the rest of the world do have an explicit human rights mandate but as Ombudsman in Ireland and now as European Ombudsman I have tended not to invoke the term ‘human rights’ when proposing a resolution to a state body as experience tells me that despite the rhetoric - even if well intentioned - state bodies at times see demands based on ‘human rights’ as difficult and potentially expensive. 

It is easier therefore to talk of administrative errors and procedural flaws even if the end result is the realisation for the citizen of a basic right, whether to housing, to social protection, to healthcare, or to some other benefit that enables the citizen to be treated in the way the Universal Declaration intended.

Of course, most of those issues just mentioned are within the competence of the Member State and not of the EU. The complaints that I receive have a different quality often concerning transparency, the opacity of the way in which EU legislation is formulated and decided, allegations of conflicts of interest, procedural fairness in EU infringement investigations, some ethical issues and a range of other matters including allegations of breaches of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

But while some of those issues might seem removed from the daily concerns of citizens they ultimately go to the heart of the lives of all of us yet in ways that are not always obvious. In that regard, through the Network of European Ombudsmen which I have the honour to chair, I have engaged member state colleagues in some of those matters in order to work together to deliver for all of the citizens of the EU and to share good practice internationally.

We worked together for example in investigating how the EU’s external border agency Frontex and Member State administrations treat failed asylum seekers while being flown back to third countries. I have also worked with a number of Ombudsman Network colleagues to ensure that the use of export credit insurance to protect investments in countries considered unstable, does not conflict with human rights obligations under the EU treaties.

But while those two issues have a clear human rights intent, I have also engaged my colleagues in the issue of lobbying transparency within the EU and the member states, as it is obvious that lobbying by vested interests that acts against the public interest when it comes to matters of the environment, of public health, of the digital economy, of a wide range of policy matters may ultimately result in the denial of human rights.

I believe that any lack of transparency around the influencing of public policy – and that includes matters such as conflicts of interest and the revolving door between the public and private sector – should be seen in the 21^st century as a human rights issue even if it is rarely if ever viewed through that prism.

It is important to observe the link for example between lobbying in Brussels by the tobacco industry and the ultimate global health impacts  or the links between lobbying practices and car industry practices in relation to the concealment of damaging diesel emissions into the environment that ultimately impact on public health. Lobbying in relation to banking and financial regulation may also have eventual implications for human rights.

The world is a much more interconnected place than it was in 1945. Decisions taken in Brussels, in Washington, ripple around the globe often producing unintended and sometimes unforeseen impacts.

Decisions to deregulate banking in the US helped to cue the 2008 banking crisis that damaged the lives of many people on this continent also.  But European banks too played their role, investing in the fragile US housing market and thereby creating a transatlantic loop of risk that rebounded on both sides of the ocean and indeed around the world, the effects of which are still being played out politically, socially, and economically.

The reversal of some climate change policy under the current US administration will almost certainly have consequences in other parts of the world. Climate change in turn leads to environmental and agricultural degradation forcing people to migrate, thus creating social and political pressures that are all too obvious to us now.  And none of us are immune. 

We may think that the plight of a farming community in a developing country forced to migrate because of climate change induced drought has little to do with those of us in the developed world.  But when scarce resources and migration provokes civic unrest and state oppression - and therefore more migration - and when that migration cues political tensions in our part of the world, then the circle is complete and none of us can escape the consequences.

It is therefore important that this interconnectedness extends to those networks that promote human rights and that we all learn how to join the dots between bad decisions made in one part of the globe and the outcomes that ultimately impact on other parts.

 

My office has conducted investigations into trade agreements between the EU and other parts of the world, looking to make sure that such trade decisions do not impact on the human rights of people in places very far away from Brussels. Equally we ensured that young people engaged as interns in the European External Action Service are given an equal opportunity to access those opportunities by being paid and not falling behind their already privileged colleagues, invoking the Treaty principle of non-discrimination to state our case.

As Ombudsmen we try to play our role in making sure that an administration puts the citizen front and centre of its work and of its duty and that there is clarity between the demands of the public interest and the private interests of others. The universal community of Ombudsmen in proud of the role that it plays in continuing to give life to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.