Dr Ákos Kozma Gives Talk at 30th Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland

On 8 September 2021, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights gave a talk at the roundtable discussion entitled “Civil Society – Support or Problem for the Authorities” in the framework of the Economic Forum. 

At the two-day forum held in Karpacz, Poland, the Ombudsman stressed that “the activities of civil society organisations cannot and should not be seen as an obstacle, in order to find the answers to the problems of our day that are becoming more and more complicated and complex, it is essential to treat civil society organisations as partners because it is only together that we can find answers to these issues.”

Furthermore, Dr Ákos Kozma underlined that a Civil Consultative Body (CCB) was established by the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights in the spring of 2021, with a mandate for three years. The members of the Civil Consultative Body are entitled to make proposals for the content of the annual visit plan of the OPCAT National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), the priorities of the investigations, and they may also propose that certain places of detention be visited. 

The series of conferences whose history goes back to more than thirty years makes it possible for the experts involved in the protection of fundamental rights, the players of the social, economic and civil sectors from all over the world to exchange their best practices with each other, as well as to provide professional support to their foreign colleagues involved in similar activities through the presentation of their activities and competences, and the operation of their institutions.