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Danish model. So, it was established actually as the really traditional
ombudsman institution which deals with cases of maladministration or
rights violations by public authorities. For years the office had really low
profile, limited or maybe even non-existing media presence if I may say
so. And the staff were exclusively lawyers coming from the line ministry,
they were really top experts in their fields who could really respond
to the complaints that they received but they didn’t have as many
complaints as later on and started receiving after we became the NHRI.

The fact that in one of the changes in the legislation the international
legal act on human rights and freedoms accepted by the Republic of
Croatia was mentioned and together with the classical ombudsman
powers of given recommendations, opinions and reports and with the
fact that the ombudsman institution really was independent at the
time those were three main ingredients which allowed my institution
to apply for the NHRI status. So, we were granted status A in 2008 and
we were re-credited in 2013. The original recommendations from 2008
were about broadening the mandate on promotion of human rights
which was really very important. Cooperation with other ombuds
institutions as I said we had at the time and still have ombudsman for
children, for rights of people with disabilities and for gender equality.
Of course, adequate funding and opening of regional offices and then
the constitutional amendments that followed really allowed us also to 3 rd INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTIONS
change the legislation as well and to have strong mandate in promotion
of human rights. So, opening of regional offices and the outreach that
was already mentioned today was recommendation both 2008 and
2013.We have opened two so far last year and I am very proud to say
that as soon as on Monday we will open our third regional office in the
second biggest town in Croatia in Split.
Cooperation with the other ombuds institutions is also established
and even institutionalized because we have decided to sign a formal
agreement on cooperation even though we feel that we do not need
one right now but just to make sure that this recommendation is
fulfilled we do have the signed agreement on cooperation.
Effective interaction with the United Nations human rights system is
really achieved through as I mentioned the report we have submitted
but also many other even day to day interactions from time to time,
many questionnaires, inputs and so on.

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