Published on May 16, 2017
Complaints, inquiries and activities in the first quarter of 2017
A total of 2170 complaints were received in the first quarter of 2017, which is 60 more than in the same period last year. The ombudsman was approached by 1462 persons in matters falling within her competence under the law, which is 79 more than in the first quarter of the past year.
Thus, the proportion of complaints falling within the Defender’s mandate increased to 68% (the figure for the last year was 66%). Most complaints were related to social security (399 complaints); many complaints (159) concerned the area of construction proceedings and spatial planning and also the prison system, police and the army (125).
In 88 of the complaints received, the Complainants claimed unequal treatment by public administration and private individuals. The number of complaints directed against discrimination within the meaning of the Anti-Discrimination Act reached 63. In 16 cases, we also provided information and analyses related to discrimination to international parties and national bodies.
In the first quarter, we performed 5 systematic visits to facilities where persons restricted in their freedom are or may be present. In the area of monitoring detention of foreign nationals and the performance of administrative expulsion, we monitored 1844 decisions.
The ombudsman has resolved e.g. a case of an 18-year-old man who was institutionalised when he was a minor. After coming of legal age, he entered into an Agreement on Voluntary Stay with the children’s home. He terminated the Agreement after six months, left the children’s home and also withdrew from his studies. However, he changed his mind and wished to return to the home and resume his studies. The employees told him that he could no longer return.
The ombudsman was also approached by a father in whose case the body of social and legal protection of children (BSLPC) refused to submit an application to adjust his personal contact with his daughter. The BSLPC was the curator ad litem of his daughter. Court proceedings lasted for over two years.
The ombudsman examined a case where parents came to a hospital for a planned operation of their two children (less than 2 years old and 3.5 years old). They had an Agreement with the hospital that the father would remain with the children after the operation. In the end, the hospital only offered the mother and grandmother to stay with the children in the hospital and referred the father to its accommodation facility.
The Prison Service did not allow a convict to leave prison for the purpose of attending the funeral of his brother and did not duly justify its rejection.
In thousands of cases, the President and Vice-president of the Regional Court in Ostrava removed the parties to the proceedings from the jurisdiction of their statutory judge without ad hoc assessment of admissibility and outside of the rules of the schedule of work.
Within the prevention of ill-treatment and supervision over restrictions of personal freedom, authorised employees of the Office performed a total of 5 systematic visits to facilities and 6 expulsion monitoring trips during the first quarter of 2017.