Speech delivered by  the Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman, Mr. Hans Gammeltoft-Hansens,  at the Intenational Conference on the ocassion of the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Institution of the People's Advocate in Albania

Tirana, December 10, 2009

Your Excellencies, dear colleagues, dear Ermir Dobjani and staff at the Avokati i Popullit,

I am honoured to have been invited to say a few words about the cooperation between Albania and Denmark with regard to the introduction and establishment of the ombudsman institution in Albania. 

For me, this is a very special day. Please allow me, first of all, to congratulate everybody who have been responsible for and involved in introducing and establishing the Ombudsman office in Albania.

In this forum today, we all remember the difficulties for Albania, especially in 1997, and we all acknowledge the complexity of the problems at that time, linked as it was to the transformation of Albanian society and its administrative structures.

The fact that also the ombudsman institution became a part of Albania’s new social structure is probably, yet again as so often seen before, due to a combination of various national and international influences and circumstances and, not least, to the simultaneously presence of the right combination of individuals at various levels.

The aforementioned combination of circumstances and individuals were present in Albania after 1997, and as an introductory remark I think it is fair to say that the history of the Advokati i Popullit contains a multitude of positive lessons learnt and – more importantly − much encouragement for donors, Governments and Ombudsmen colleagues to continue disseminating the ombudsman idea.

The problems that followed in the wake of the proposal to establish an ombudsman institution were not specific to Albania. Some issues seem to pop up wherever you look at the ombudsman concept and its history of implementation: ensuring the ombudsman’s independence from and relationship with the political level, the relation to the judiciary and to the executive and especially the work of the ombudsman to change or amend the administrative norms, traditions and ethics.

The fact that solutions and various modus operandi differ from country to country is really not that unusual when you take the different national historic contexts and administrative and legislative traditions into account. And on this background, it is really remarkable how often ombudsman offices run into the same set of problems.

The fellowship among ombudsman offices of fundamental challenges also explains why twinning projects in this specific area of cooperation are viable and well-established.

Although the expression itself was relatively new and almost unknown to us, the cooperation between the Albanian and the Danish Ombudsman could be described as a twinning project. It cannot, and shall not, be denied that twinning projects may be wrecked on various rocks and reefs, and I would not even on this festive occasion dare to give the impression that the Albanian-Danish cooperation was fair-weather sailing all the way.

And yet, in my eyes the cooperation was a quite successful process during which we from Denmark gained an exceedingly valuable experience, partly on how a cooperation process may be organised, partly on the necessary conditions for its success, and not the least that the mandates of the institutions involved do not at all have to be identical in order to achieve a successful cooperation; and finally, we learned quite a bit about our own institution and our limitations.

Experiencing the Albanian decision to implement the Avokati i Popullit and meeting the individuals who laboured for the idea and the newly established institution taught us a lot about commitment and dedication to an idea and a concept so well established in our own society. A democratic institution such as the ombudsman office needs support and attention but also independence from the political hierarchy and it has a great need for a personal commitment from its Ombudsman and his or her staff. In Tirana we met a leader and a staff who strongly believed in the institution’s ideas and were willing to work very hard indeed to gain a permanent foothold in Albanian society.

Looking back at the cooperation with Albania on the establishment of the Avokati i Popullit, we from the Danish Ombudsman Office met two stakeholders who stood out as essential in making it possible for the Danish Ombudsman to enter into the cooperative scheme with the Avokati i Popullit at all.

These two stakeholders were Danida and the Royal Danish Embassy here in Tirana which, on top of setting aside one million dollars for the cooperative project, supplied committed and enthusiastic staff members – and here today, I would particularly like to mention the then Programme Coordinator for Danida in Tirana, Søren Knudsen.

Without these resources, and especially without this support, the cooperation between the Albanian and the Danish ombudsman offices would probably never have resulted in very much of any practical use!

In Albania a group of representatives from domestic and international organizations, institutions and donors met informally on a number of occasions to discuss and plan for the coming implementation of the ombudsman idea in Tirana. In this group we saw among others representatives from the Peoples’ Advocate, the respective embassies of the United States and Denmark, the Tirana Legal Aid Clinic, the OSCE and the Albanian Centre for Human Rights

This group of friends supporting the Albanian Ombudsman developed into a very important forum and an instrument for the consolidation of the institution in the Albanian social structure.

So when the Danish ombudsman institution became a partner in the cooperative effort, a solid foundation had already been established, both nationally and internationally, for the idea of introducing an ombudsman institution in Albania. The will to procure the necessary financial support was there, and the ground at the political and administrative level had been prepared.

The interests of the involved donors and parties in a cooperation of the sort taking place in Tirana between Albania and Denmark are not always quite identical; and sometimes discussions may arise on how and when a close cooperation and support should start to be transformed into an always available access to communication and exchange of knowledge.

Dear Ermir Dobjani, you and I have often joked about how we would describe our cooperation and relationship. If my memory serves me right, you started this whole battle of words by using the analogy of Father and Son – meaning a relatively old ombudsman office working with a new ombudsman office. For many obvious reasons I protested against this analogy, and I think we ended the argument so far sometime in 2006 by introducing the Uncle and Nephew analogy. To me, our debate on how to describe the relationship between us and our offices represents more than a dispute on words, and on a day like this, I hope you will all excuse me for using the opportunity of having the floor to once and for all have it my way and describe the relationship between the Avokati i Popullit and the Danish Ombudsman as a relationship between Brothers or Peers!

I have been given a time limit of 10 minutes for my speech and I intend to keep it, but before handing over the microphone to the next speaker, I would like, with all my very best wishes for the future, to take the opportunity to congratulate you and Albania most heartily on this anniversary.