People’s Advocate (Ombudsman) defends the rights, freedoms and lawful interests of individuals from unlawful and incorrect acts or omissions of public administration bodies as well as third parties acting on its behalf. It has as its mission the prevention of potential conflicts between public administration and the individual. Ombudsman acts on the basis of the complaint or request submitted to his office. He also operates on his own initiative, for special occasions made public, but further must take the consent of the person concerned or the injured.
In defense of the interests of a wider community which may be affected by the administrative proceeding, the Ombudsman has the right to initiate an administrative proceeding and participate in it in accordance with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Code.
It’s not the Ombudsman who decides directly himself to restitute the rights of petitioners, but he makes recommendations to remedy the violation of the right by a public administration body which has caused the violation. In cases where the relevant body does not respond to the recommendations of the Ombudsman, the latter may address gradually to higher bodies in hierarchy up to the Assembly (Parliament) with a report proposing concrete measures for restitution of the violated right.
Methodology constraint/limitations- Report of People’s Advocate for 2018 made by People’s Advocate doesn’t contain clear recommendation for improving state in human rights area. In the following section, relevant part of the Report is focusing on actions which People’s Advocate should take in order to implement Albanian parliament resolution.
