This month, the Human Rights Ombudsman set up and opened an Ombudsman’s Corner in ten Slovenian municipalities. These are Piran, Bled, Preddvor, Koper, Tolmin, Trbovlje, Lenart, Muta, Gornji Petrovci, and Vojnik. Ombudsman Svetina has visited all of these municipalities during his term, but has not yet opened an Ombudsman’s Corner. “With this we strive to realise our goal to set up Ombudsman’s Corners in as many municipalities as possible by the end of my six-year term and thus bring the institution of the Ombudsman closer to the widest possible circle of people in the environment where they live. The Corners have a stand from which citizens can acquire useful information about the Ombudsman’s work in the form of brochures and flyers, and a form for filing a complaint. The purpose of the Corner is to inform people about when and how they can turn to the Human Rights Ombudsman. This way it will be easier for us to help them if they find themselves in distress or have problems getting answers or explanations from different institutions and authority bodies,” clarifies Svetina.

In the Corners, information about the Ombudsman institution is available in the traditional printed form because many people are lost in the flood of information online or do not have the possibility to do so or are not skilled in this form of communication. We have also prepared an easy-to-read booklet about the Ombudsman which is intended for all those who due to their impairments have difficulty understanding complicated texts. Furthermore, the Ombudsman has not forgotten about all who are skilled in browsing the internet and so, in cooperation with the municipalities, they have prepared a subpage of the municipality webpage called the Digital Ombudsman’s Corner where the same information is available as on the stands set up in municipality premises. Citizens can also learn about the Ombudsman’s Corner in local bulletins.

So far the Ombudsman has set up and opened Ombudsman’s Corners in 29 Slovenian municipalities.