The “Ombudsman in the Community” Project for Promotion of the Protection of the Rights of Populations Deserving Advancement

State Comptroller and Ombudsman Englman launched the “Ombudsman in the Community” project for promotion of the protection of the rights of populations deserving advancement

  • Teams of the Office of the State Ombudsman will go out into the field, will meet “face to face” with residents of the periphery and will encourage them to realize their rights and when necessary to submit complaints.

  • A system for helping staffed by volunteers speaking different languages (Amharic, Russian, Arabic).

  • Public participation will focus the work of the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman on issues that in the “public’s eyes” are essential.

    State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, wearing his state ombudsman hat, continuing to implement the “constructive audit reform”, sees great importance in focusing audit work and clarifying complaints about issues that, in the “public’s eyes”, are essential. In this regard, Englman launched the “Ombudsman in the Community” project to promote protection of the rights of populations deserving advancement. The project’s objective is to expand the activities of the Office of the State Ombudsman to communities in the periphery to encourage citizens to stand up for their rights and when necessary to submit complaints. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman launched the project at the annual ombudsman conference that was held last Tuesday at the Shalva Center in Jerusalem. The conference, led by the director of the Office of the State Ombudsman, Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, attorney, addressed assorted aspects of safeguarding social rights in Israel.

 

Each year, the Office of the State Ombudsman handles around 14,000 complaints related to infringement of the rights of complainants by local authorities and public bodies. From the data gathered by the Office of the State Ombudsman, it appears that the degree of complaints among different groups in the socioeconomic periphery, including the Arab society, the Ethiopian community, the ultra-Orthodox community and others, is significantly lower that their percentage in the population. The low number of complaints derives from, among other reasons, a number of obstacles, among which are: language problems, lack of awareness of their rights, lack of belief in the authorities, lack of access to computer systems and more.

The “Ombudsman in the Community” project will work to expand the number of state ombudsman public inquiry service points in different communities in the periphery and will promote “face to face” meetings at which community members can meet representative of the Office of the State Ombudsman, consult with them and if necessary submit an oral complaint.

Expansion of activities will be done by establishing a system of volunteers, “ombudsman trustees for providing access to rights”, speaking a number of languages (Amharic, Russian, Arabic), who know firsthand the problems with which the population is dealing. The volunteers as well as employees of the Office of the State Ombudsman, will meet residents at the public inquiry service points in social organizations and distribute pamphlets and information sheets about social topics.

To do this, as part of the ombudsman conference, a public appeal was made to social organizations in the periphery to promote cooperation between these groups and the state ombudsman. Following a successful pilot project carried out by the Lod office, the head office believes that deepening the cooperation with social organizations will help ensure the best possible access to the state ombudsman by populations deserving advancement.

The Office of the State Comptroller emphasizes that when State Comptroller and Ombudsman Englman took office, he committed to acting to advance and realize the rights of populations living in the social and geographic periphery of the State of Israel. In this framework, the comptroller instructed his Office to deepen audits in the field, arranged orientation days, field trips and observations in government ministries and local authorities, visits to public inquiry service points and distributed questionnaires to the public to enhance the service given it.

Public participation will advance the protection of populations deserving advancement and will focus the work of the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman on issues that are, “in the public’s eyes”, essential.

How does one submit a complaint?