Within the scope of the visit to Italy, Chairman Prof. Dr. Muharrem Kılıç and the accompanying delegation participated the thematic high-level meeting titled Mariupol (Un)lost Hope, held in Rome on September 20, 2023, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ombudsman and the Italian Lazio Region Ombudsman. At the high-level thematic meeting held in Rome, consultations were held with the country’s ombudsmen and relevant authorities, especially the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets and the President of the Italian Ombudsmen/Lazio Region Ombudsman Marino Fardelli.
Chairman Prof. Dr. Kılıç and the accompanying delegation participated in the International Conference “The Role of Ombudsman in the World: Between Reality and Possibility” held at the Italian Parliament on September 21-22, 2023. Four thematic sessions titled “The Ombudsman, Bridge Between Citizens and Local Authorities”, “Digital Transformation”, “Human Rights in Global Crises” and “The Right to Health” were held at the conference.
The Conference started with opening ceremony by the President of the National Coordination of Italian Ombudsmen and Ombudsman of the Lazio Region, President of the Lazio Regional Council, Mayor of Rome, President of International Ombudsman Institute and Ombudsman of Western Australia.
In the first session of the Conference titled “The Ombudsman, Bridge Between Citizens and Local Authorities”, representatives of the Ombudsmen of Ukraine, Pakistan, Canada, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia and Romania presented their speeches.
In the second session of the conference titled “Digital Transformation”, representatives of the Ombudsmen of the Kingdom of Morocco, Belgium, Malaysia, the Principality of Monaco and Argentina made their presentations.
In the second session titled “Digital Transformation”, Chairman Prof. Dr. Kılıç made a presentation on “Digital Transformation, Internet, Fundamental Rights/Digital Divide: The Role of the Ombudsman”. Our Chairman Prof. Dr. Kılıç emphasized in his speech that artificial intelligence technologies lead to algorithmic bias and discrimination. Prof. Dr. Kılıç pointed out the need for national human rights institutions to combat algorithmic discrimination and the critical importance of developing strategies for this.
In the third and fourth sessions of the conference, representatives of Ombudsmen and institutions of various countries made presentations on their institutional work and evaluations in the relevant thematic areas.