News from the Ombudsman’s Office: August 2024
News and events of the Ombudsman’s Office in August 2024 (information in links available in Latvian).
Remuneration of Song Festival Artistic Collective Leaders must increase
If the tradition of the Song and Dance Festival is important to us as a country, the Ombudsman calls for the new model of remuneration of artistic collective leaders to be approved without delay.
None of the state and municipal websites studied are fully accessible to people with disabilities
None of the state and local government websites included in the Ombudsman’s research are fully accessible, which makes access to information for people with disabilities considerably more difficult. Problems exist both for websites hosted on the unified platform of State and local government websites created specifically for compliance with accessibility requirements and for those not hosted on that platform.
‘NGO networking’ – an opportunity for non-governmental organisations to show themselves and learn about the achievements of others
The Ombudsman, Apeirons and the National Library of Latvia invite non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of Latvia representing the interests of people with disabilities to submit information about themselves and their projects on the website ej.uz/NVOkontaktbirza until October 1st, which will be published on the platform asistenti.lv in the section “NGO kontaktbirža”, as well as to plan participation in the on-site networking on December 4 at the National Library of Latvia.
Purchasing learning materials – Ombudsman’s compilation is still relevant
As the new school year approaches, the issue of purchasing learning materials becomes more and more topical, so the Ombudsman recalls that the information included in the law on what parents of school and pre-school children must buy and what educational institutions must provide is still relevant.
Lack of coordinated action in addiction treatment – how the state allows children die?
Targeted support for both children who want to get out of the marsh of addictive substances and those who do not want to be treated, although this should be done without delay – it is the duty of the state to provide this type of assistance. However, the Ombudsman’s voluminous report vividly highlights the harsh reality that this is rarely the case in practice.
A major step forward in improving access to banking services for people with limited capacity
The guidelines prepared by the Ombudsman’s Office ‘Recommendations for trustees, sworn advocates, courts, Orphan’s and Custody Courts and credit institutions on the provision of banking services to persons with limited capacity’ provide a detailed insight into the parties involved in the process of restricting person’s capacity to act, identifying the aspects that must be observed providing banking services.