A Critical Appraisal of the Venice Principles on the Protection and Promotion of the Ombudsman: An Equivalent to the Paris Principles?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article offers a detailed critical appraisal of the Venice Principles on the Protection and Promotion of the Ombudsman, adopted in 2019 by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. It praises them for being the most comprehensive set of constitutional and legal principles relating to ombudsman to date, drafted to be applicable to different legal and political systems. However, the article finds that such adaptability also resulted in some trade-offs and came at the expense of conceptual clarity of some of the principles. Despite that, the Venice Principles present a more complete document than the Paris Principles on National Human Rights Institutions, with better internal logic and consistency when it comes to ombudsman’s issues. The article concludes that ombudsman institutions fully in line with the Venice Principles would, ipso facto, reach a normative threshold for the compliance with the Paris Principles.