Can ombudsman offices offer an effective form of civil rights protection in the Arab world? Dena Rashed investigates At the Ombudsman Office in Cairo sat a lady in her 50s lamenting the fate of her daughter. "My daughter applied to a competition requesting Arabic teachers for Al- Azhar. She applied and they sent her a letter of acceptance. But later on they refused to appoint her," said Samia Shawky. "I need you to help her get that job," she said addressing the lawyer at the office. The story of Shawky's daughter, Doha, is only one of thousands of complaints the Ombudsman Office receives from women from all over Egypt. Shawky travelled 500 kilometres from Sohag governorate because she was told the Ombudsman Office was the only solution to her daughter's problem. "When no one answered or paid attention to my complaint, an employee at the governor's office in Sohag told me 'go the Ombudsman Office and they will certainly listen and act'," she said. Lately introduced to several Arab countries, ombudsman offices were originally created in Sweden to protect the rights of individuals where civil servants of the state didn't adhere to law. The Swedish word "ombudsman" means a representative or person whose task is to take care of somebody else's interests. The Egyptian ombudsman has been appointed by the government and is a sub-division of the National Council for Women (NCW). Since it's inception thousands of women have approached the council in an attempt to find solutions to their problems. "The Ombudsman Office in Cairo is only part of a growing number of ombudsman offices all over the world, and our office here made it clear to many women that their violated rights could be regained," Fatemah Khafaga, the head of the Ombudsman Office in Cairo, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The total number of complaints heard by the Ombudsman Office from 15 June 2002 to 31 December 2003 reached 6,750. Khafaga added that 34. 6 per cent of the complaints received have to do with violations of women's equal rights of work, while 26.8 per cent of the complaints have to do with complaints regarding personal status law. Sanaa El-Shamy, a lawyer at the Ombudsman Office in Cairo, while admitting "not all complaints are solved", maintains the office has "succeeded in solving over 50 per cent of all complaints received". With 140 volunteer lawyers all over Egypt dedicated to defending women's causes, the ombudsman idea is gaining credence. "We are opening up another office in Aswan, and we are expecting soon another too in the Delta, to make it easier for women living there," said Wael Abdou, the only male lawyer working at the Cairo Ombudsman Office. Yet despite successes, and much determination, many difficulties disrupt the smooth operation of ombudsman offices in the Arab world. In Egypt, contrary to offices in Sweden and other European countries, the Ombudsman Office does not derive its power from legislation passed by parliament. "The power of our office is derived from our good relations with the people working in the ministry. We have a good reputation as lawyers too, and that helps our work a lot," said El- Shamy. Additionally, located at the premises of the National Democratic Party, the office intimidates some women. As Khafaga said, "They might think we are part of the government's office." To address these and similar problems a regional seminar organised by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation), the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and the Cairo Ombudsman Office was held at the Swedish Institute from 29 March to 1 April, bringing together representatives from Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Palestine, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon. Much discussion focussed on the context of regional political systems. "It becomes highly difficult to maintain the independence and the effectiveness of an ombudsman without a parliament that is democratically elected," said Said Zeedani, the director of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights (PICCR). That an ombudsman flourishes best in a democratic system where full transparency and accountability is present was a point also stressed by Mohamed Magruby of Mirsad, a Lebanese NGO. "It should be clear the ombudsman system safeguards human rights," he said. "It is supposed to perfect what is already there, not to create a system," he added. Mats Melin, the Swedish chief parliamentary ombudsman, told the Weekly, "It is not necessary to adopt the idea [of ombudsman offices] as we created it in Sweden. Ombudsman offices in the Arab world may function differently. What is important is that the present offices protect the human rights of citizens." Funding also remains an obstacle. Some representatives suggested that ombudsmen should avoid being funded by the government. But Hoda Badran, from the Alliance for Arab Women, believes that governments should participate in the funding of ombudsmen offices. "This means the government is committing itself to the ombudsman," opined Badran. Walid El-Saadi, director of Jordan's Centre for Human Rights, suggested that cooperation with and friendly persuasion of the government should be the basic approach to resolving complaints a given people may have. Working quietly from within, however, was not embraced as a strategy by all participants. "We are not looking for favours, we are trying to perfect the already existent systems, and confrontation is obviously a means to that," replied Magruby. Participants did agree on advocating the formation of ombudsman offices in Arab countries that had not established one yet, and to exchange information among the different Arab ombudsman offices existing.
