Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Daily Star staff

What an ombudsman would do and how he would do it in Lebanon dominated the second day of a workshop focused on  establishing such a mediator between the government and its citizens.
“Before discussing his prerogatives, we should elaborate the definition of the mediator,” said lawyer Ghassan Mokheiber during the workshop, entitled The Establishment of an Ombudsman, which continued Tuesday at the Gefinor Rotana Hotel. Minister of State for Administrative Reform Fouad Saad and representatives of 18 countries also attended.
Saad’s office, which has recently sponsored two initiatives it hopes will guide relations between citizens and the public administration, is expected to propose a “mediator of the republic” for Cabinet approval.
Participants at the workshop’s concluding session discussing details of the 14-article proposition.
The proposals call on the Cabinet to appoint a mediator for a four-year term upon a recommendation from Parliament that includes the names of five candidates. “A candidate should be at least 40 years of age and a holder of a PhD in law or political and administrative studies,” Article 2 of the proposal reads.
An appointed mediator would only be removed in case of sickness or if a committee comprised of the heads of the Supreme Court, Shura Council and Auditing Department reports “an error committed by the mediator” to the Cabinet.
“The mediator’s services to the public should be free of charge,” according to Article 13, which also places the budget for the mediator’s office under that of the office of the prime minister.
Discussions on the proposal’s specifics followed earlier presentations by foreign delegates on the role of mediators in the home countries.
In Italy, “every region has its (own) mediator, which makes Italy the country with the biggest number of mediators in Europe,” according to Maria Grazia Vacchina, the mediator of Aoste Valley in Italy.
Representatives from other countries said that different mediators perform different tasks. “In the United States we have ‘general’ and ‘classic’ mediators as well as those who work on specific issues,” said Laura Goodman-Brown, the vice-president of the US Ombudsman Association.
The delegates briefed Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on their activities and highlighted the importance of the creation of ombudsman’s office here.
Rafael Olvera, a member of the Mexican National Commission of Human Rights, told The Daily Star that even though bureaucracies in developing countries can benefit from the experience of the more advanced ones, “every country should adapt such an experience to its own needs and peculiarities.”
Olvera explained that in countries weighed down by bureaucracy, an office with wide prerogatives would facilitate the “looking over of some administrative flaws and mistakes and would be certainly effective.”

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