Office of the commissioner for fundamental rights of hungary

On 24 November 2020, the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) held an online conference entitled "COVID–19 and the Ombudsperson – Rising to the Challenge of a Pandemic". Within the framework of the webinar, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Dr. Ákos Kozma presented – in a video message – what were the activities that the Hungarian Ombudsman institution carried out in order to address the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the experience gained in these extraordinary times.

The COVID–19 pandemic has posed many challenges for the Ombudsman institutions worldwide working to protect the rights of the individual, and in particular the rights of vulnerable populations.

The webinar of the IOI brought together colleagues from 50 Ombudsman institutions around the globe, to learn about the ways Ombudsman institutions have coped and are still coping with the enormous social and economic problems generated by the pandemic, and to share the experiences they have made and the solutions Ombudspersons have implemented in the different settings to deal with the new situation.

Regional Presidents of the IOI’s African, Asian, Australasian and Pacific, Caribbean and Latin American, European and North American Regions examined the exceptional circumstances from the different regional perspectives, and reported how Ombudsmen in the different regions dealt with the challenges of this pandemic.