RIGA - Parliament overwhelmingly voted on March 3 to appoint Romans Apsitis, a former judge, to the newly formed post of ombudsman. He was sworn into office immediately after the vote. The post of ombudsman, which started as a pet project of the president's office, will replace the now defunct National Human Rights Office in dealing with matters of discrimination, in addition to its other duties aimed at fostering harmony between the state and its citizenry.
Apsitis was nominated for the position by the ruling coalition but also managed to win the support of the opposition New Era party. "The ombudsman is independent from politics," Apsitis commented later.
Apsitis was approved after Saeima (Latvia's parliament) rejected the two previous candidates, Rasma Karklina and Ringolds Balodis. The two rejections forced the office to delay the post's scheduled Jan. 1 launching. Lawmakers drew fire from President Vaira Vike-Freiberga for their inability to choose someone for the post earlier.
Apsitis was approved with 70 votes for and 16 against, which prompted Aiva Rozenberga, the president's spokeswoman, to call it "a vote of confidence which gives Romans Apsitis an opportunity to tackle this difficult task, to place the institution of ombudsman on a firm footing and to win people's confidence."
After the appointment, Apsitis said, "The only thing I can say now is that it is my honor to serve Latvia."
The ombudsman office indeed has a difficult task in front of it. Last year the Human Rights Office received 5443 complaints, and this year's total is expected to surpass that.
According to Sabine Vilumsone, a spokeswoman for the ombudsman's office, if it is deemed necessary from complaints received from individual citizens, Apsitis will be entitled to analyze the situation of human rights, "at any time and without a special permit to visit closed-type institutions."
In addition to human rights issues, the ombudsman is tasked with ensuring the "good administration" of the state. In other words, Apsitis will have the right to point to deficiencies not only of the Ministry of Justice, but also of the government, of Parliament and of other ministries and state institutions, Vilumsone explained.
The ombudsman's third set of duties will be to act as an alternative to the administrative courts. The investigative process and complaint procedure are relatively fast and simple for the ombudsman, so lawmakers hope that the new office will help ease the strain on Latvia's overworked court system, which earlier this year was severely criticized by the head of state.
Vike-Freiberga acknowledged the difficulties of the job and expressed her hope that Apsitis would be able to deal with his duties, commenting that the position of ombudsman "was not meant as a Santa Claus coming with sticks."
Apsitis has been a judge on the Constitutional Court since 1996 and a professor at Latvia University's Faculty of Law since 2003. He has been elected to the Latvian parliament twice and served as Minister of Justice for approximately one year.
He is currently in the process of hiring new staff for the ombudsman office. He has pointed to a lack of human resources as the largest obstacle facing the ombudsman office and has made selecting qualified employees one of his first tasks.
