Ranked first in public trust – the most recent research on the social prestige of the Ombudsman

Ranked first in public trust – the most recent research on the social prestige of the Ombudsman

87 percent of the respondents know the Ombudsman institution by hearsay, 85 percent of them know about the position of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. While four years ago only 32 out of 100 respondents mentioned the ombudsman as an institution to which citizens may apply, this November their number has raised to 54. Four years ago, it was ranked second and third, this year the Office of the Commissioner has been ranked first in public trust.

In 1998, 2008 and November of this year Ipsos has conducted a survey of public opinion on the Ombudsman institution's social awareness and recognition. The main findings – amongst others – are that so called active awareness has raised from 15 % in 1998 and 32% in 2008 to 54 percent which means that the respondents mentioned this institution of rights protection without any allusion or guidance. When analyzing the results, it should be added that regarding the evaluation of a total of 20, well known human rights protection institution, 17 per cent of the respondents could name this institution.

17 per cent of the adult population would surely, and another 34 per cent would probably bring his/her problem to the ombudsman, which is a significant increase compared to statistics made ever before. An interesting and important finding of the research is that within these numbers there was a notable increase in the proportion of young people, people living in cities and villages and persons with low level of education or in very poor financial situation. Ipsos, however, has also showed that active awareness, meaning good knowledge of the activities of the ombudsman institution, is still more common between people with higher levels of education and in a relatively good financial situation. The best known is the commissioner for fundamental rights. The deputy commissioner responsible for the rights of nationalities was named by 5 per cent of the respondents and the deputy commissioner for the protection of the interests of future generations was named by 5 per cent of the respondents, which is not lower than the data collected prior to the establishment of a unified office of the ombudsman, when independent ombudsmen for minorities and future generations were in charge.

It was the third time the opinion research institute has revealed the ranking of the ombudsman institution on a hundred-scale confidence index that is ranking in public trust. In 1998 it was ranked third and fourth, in 2008 second and third and this year the ombudsman was the first on this list. The figures of the Ipsos research give a clear explanation: while the popularity index of the ombudsman has slightly increased over the last four years, with two per cent – or taking into account the margin of error in statistics it remained constant – in case of other institutions, parties and organizations it has dropped significantly. On the confidence index the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights is followed by the Constitutional Court, the police, which is keeping its place, and the most popular parties.

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