The Mediator of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg invited the AOMF to hold its seminar on the subject of, 'Crisis Management: the role of the mediator' from 23 to 25 October 2023. This highly topical subject provided an opportunity to review the role of the Ombudsmen in health, humanitarian, and environmental crises.
The High Commissioner chaired a round table on humanitarian crises, with the participation of Fatimata Sanou Toure, Mediator of Burkina Faso, and Esther Gimenez-Salinas I Colomer, human rights defender from Catalonia. Through sharing experiences, it became apparent that the Ombudsmen's relationship with the public, their knowledge of fundamental rights and their impartiality enable them to work towards resolving crises by limiting or avoiding the use of violence and taking the protection of fundamental rights into account.
The round table on health issues covered the importance of good cooperation between mediation institutions and the authorities, as building public policies that guarantee users' fundamental rights requires listening carefully to users' needs, something that is unfortunately often forgotten.
Regarding the environment, there was a reminder of the points made at the High Commission's 2021 Monaco conference, which led to the establishment of the Monaco Declaration. Unfortunately, it is now confirmed that children and their rights are already particularly impacted by the effects of global warming in the southern states and that they will all continue to be affected in the long term.