Recommendation 757 (1975)

Conclusions of the meeting of the Assembly's Legal Affairs Committee with the Ombudsmen and Parliamentary Commissioners in Council of Europe member states

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Assembly debate on 29 January 1975 (26th Sitting) (see , report of the Legal Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 29 January 1975 (26th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Welcoming the meeting which its Legal Affairs Committee held with the Ombudsmen and Parliamentary Commissioners in Council of Europe member states (Paris, 18-19 April 1974) ;

2. Considering that Ombudsmen, Parliamentary Commissioners etc., serve a twofold purpose of paramount importance, namely the protection of individuals against maladministration by public authorities, and the promotion of good government in general ;

3. Aware that public authorities today regulate more and more aspects of human life ;

4. Considering that, whereas states have taken up for themselves the safeguard of man's fundamental rights and liberties, these very rights and liberties can be jeopardised by the encroachings of public authority upon the private life of the individual ;

5. Considering further that the usual forms of judicial control are not always suited to cope with sufficient speed and efficacy with all the facets and intricacies of present-day administration ;

6. Convinced that there is need for an additional guarantee that should be simpler, quicker, less expensive and more flexible in its operation than existing judicial remedies ;

7. Believing that this guarantee can be provided by an Ombudsman or Parliamentary Commissioner ;

8. Convinced also that, through the information and assistance he gives to parliament, the Ombudsman contributes to strengthening parliamentary control over the executive ;

9. Welcoming the remarkable extension at national and local level of the institution of the Ombudsman or Parliamentary Commissioner that has taken place in Europe in recent years,

10. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite the governments of those member states which have not yet done so, to consider the possibility of appointing at national, regional and/ or at local level persons discharging functions similar to those of existing Ombudsmen and Parliamentary Commissioners