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just wanted to talk about the basic points and I hope that I have just
pictured it effectively. Of course, we have minuses, we have pluses.
Thank you for listening to me.

CHAIR: Thank you very much Mr. Benzakour.
It is really very important to have different speakers here to enable
discussion of diverse experiences and you lucidly elaborated on the
experiences of Morocco.

Mr. Benzakour gave us many great examples, in particular, related to the
Mediterranean experience of yours.

Now, I would like to give the microphone to the Ombudsman of Crotia.
Especially, what you are going to say is vital. Your experiences mean to
us. Please Mrs. Lora Vıdovic.

LORA VIDOVIĆ (Ombudsman of Croatia)

Thank you very much Mr. Moderator and I would like particularly to
thank the organizers for inviting me for this very important symposium.
I am really honored to be here and to share experience of my country
and my office which was originally established as the ombudsman
office which as we all know traditionally investigate legal violations
or cases of legal right violations by public authorities. Of course,
different ombudsman offices have diversified over the years and as
we heard the example from Latvia earlier today my country also is
not only ombudsman office and the NHRI (the National Human Rights
Institution) with strong mandate in both promotion and protection
of human rights but also equality body and national preventive
mechanism. So there is quite a handful of mandate that we have to
juggle every day.

The UN General Assembly resolution encourages ombudsman
institutions to implement international standards and act as national
human rights protection mechanisms. And of course that brings me to
the NHRI as being very similar to the ombudsman in its establishment
but also having some of the differences. The NHRI just like the
ombudsman office is a part of the state apparatus, it is funded by the
state, as a rule, accountable to the Parliament just like the Ombudsman
Office and it is not under the direct rule of the government or the

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