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perhaps the greatest success so far. It has been difficult to find a very
meaningful role for this apart from changing information. It is however
also an accountability mechanism for the center they approve our
operational plan annually and they also approve our annual report so
there is some kind of accountability mechanism attached to the center.
But it is not a management board or board of any sort so it cannot
tasks us on our daily work it is more on the broad lines of priorities
that we get tasking. I already said that we have under chair of this
we have forty members, we have NGOs, we have academics, we have
all the other ex-office bodies are members of the delegation so this
was one attempt to try to coordinate a little bit between the various
actors that we have in this field because in addition to the ombudsman
and human rights center we have chancellor of justice with identical
mandate to the ombudsman and we also have specialized bodies,
equality bodies, data protection bodies and children ombudsman. So,
it is a lot for a small country of bit more than 5 million people but we
have I think a good network that meets often and even plans together
a little bit to avoid duplication.
I will say a few words about the parliamentary ombudsman because
of the nature of this gathering and because after the Swedish
Ambassador had the word in the opening I need to of course say that
we were the second ombudsman established in the world already 3 rd INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTIONS
in 1919. In February, we had a big anniversary celebration 95 years
so it was a good time to reflect on the history of the ombuds office
and although Finland for many years has been rather peaceful and
a consensus type of society the ombudsman of course has survived
much more difficult times including wars, it was established after the
civil war after the independence. And the historian say that it even
in the difficult times managed to somehow work in a fairly credible
way for many many years it has been very credible, trusted institution,
it is not seen as very political or not all political so it is a very very
good basis. It has a very strong fundamental of human rights mandate
from the constitution so the ombudsman himself takes a lot of pride
of saying that it is not a typical ombuds office that just looking at the
legality or the administration aspect since 1995 they have had to in
every activity they do take into account human rights, fundamental
rights. So, that was part of the reason why the ombuds office was
considered as natural basis for the human rights institution. So, the

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