Mr Pavel Varvarovsky elected new Czech ombudsman

The Czech Chamber of Deputies elected former Constitutional Court judge Pavel Varvarovsky as Public Defender of Rights, ombudsman. He enjoyed support of the coalition parties that command a comfortable majority of votes in the Chamber of Deputies and succeeded in the second round of the secret ballot. He was supported by 98 of 181 deputies present. His rival candidate, civil rights activist John Bok, was supported by 22 deputies.

Mr Varvarovsky's candidacy was proposed by the Senate, the upper house, at the initiative of senators Alena Venhodova and Jana Jurencakova, from the government parties Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09, respectively.

Mr Varvarovsky will take up the ombudsman’s office by taking his oath in the presence of Chamber of Deputies chairwoman Miroslava Nemcova. He is supposed to do so in 10 days.

In his speech before the election, Varvarovsky criticised the excessive swelling of legislation and expressed himself against dogmatic interpretation of law and against those who fail to fulfil their commitments and who disrespect the rights of others.

Mr. Varvarovsky was born on October 16, 1945 in Ceske Budejovice, South Bohemia. He is graduated from Law Faculty at Charles University in Prague (1963-1968) and received doctor's degree in administrative law in 1973.

He worked as a lawyer in state companies from 1969 to 1984 (Mikulov wine company, Jesenik state spa, Rudne doly Jesenik mining company, Ingstav Brno construction company). In 1985-1990, he worked as a lecturer at the Institute for further education of health care employees in Brno. In 1991, he was an aide to the Czechoslovak government commissioner for refugees. In 1992-1994, he was a judge at the Supreme Court. On March 29, 1994, he was appointed a constitutional judge. He worked at the Constitutional Court for 10 years, dealing with administrative judiciary and legislation in health care and labour areas.

He has never been a member of any party or movement.

He is married and has two grown-up children.