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The European ombudsmen will promote a network to strengthen the defence of the peoples' rights
Some of the main European ombudsmen, gathered in Barcelona to participate in the Third Conference of the 20th Anniversary of the Catalan Ombudsman Act, will promote a collaboration network to strengthen the defence of the peoples' rights. In his closing speech, the Síndic, Rafael Ribó, encouraged the defenders to arrange new meetings to discuss specific topics that concern and affect people.
Also, he mentioned that one of the issues to work on is the right to a good administration, which is included in the European Constitutional Treaty and in the new Catalan Statute. The European Ombudsman, Nikoforos Diamandouros, referred to this cooperation network as well and announced that there will be new a European Ombudsmen meeting in 2007, which will bring together for the first time the State ombudsmen and the regional and autonomic defenders. The Conference has been a good setting for debating different models of ombudsman existing in Europe and for claiming the key role they play in the defence of peoples' rights. In addition, it has been reiterated the importance and need for keeping on advising and collaborating with the new democracies in Eastern Europe, which is already been done by the defenders of Western Europe, like the Síndic, in order to introduce and consolidate the Ombudsman institution. Since the meeting took place coinciding with the adoption of the new statute by the Parliament of Catalunya, Ribó underlined that the text develops and specifies a series of rights of people, and, therefore, reinforces the Síndic's mission to defend these rights. The Conference, hold on the 29th and 30th of September, was attended by the ombudsmen from Sweden, Belgium, France, Austria, Ireland, Spain, Greece and the Commissioner of Human rights of the Council of Europe, the European Ombudsman, the local Ombudsman of Amsterdam and the Ombudsman of the Wallon Region of Belgium. Other participants were the ombudsmen from Spanish autonomous regions, like the Basque Country, Valencian Community, Navarre, Castile, Andalusia and the Canary Islands together with Síndics and Local defenders from some Catalunya's towns.
