ACRC held the 15th AOA General Assembly Meeting and 2017 PyeongChang Global Ombudsman Conference

- “Venue for the harmony and discussion among Asian Ombudsmen” -

May 16, 2016

- The 15th General Assembly of the Asian Ombudsman Association and 2017 PyeongChang Global Ombudsman Conference was held -

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) and Ombudsman Commission of Gangwon Province held the 15th General Assembly of the Asian Ombudsman Association (AOA) and 2017 PyeongChang Global Ombudsman Conference from May 16th to 19th at Alpensia Resort Convention Center in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province.

This event, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the AOA, hosted four day meetings with a theme of "Past, Present and Future Perspective of Asian Ombudsman." The first day held the 20th AOA Board of Directors' meeting and International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) Asian region meeting as well as the 15th General Assembly of the AOA. From May 17th to 19th, 2017 PyeongChang Ombudsman Conference sessions was held with 4 sessions of such topics as development of ombudsman system by political, administrative, and social changes.

This international conference which the ACRC, commemorating the 10th anniversary of its launch, and Ombudsman Commission of Gangwon Province jointly held, was participated by around 400 people including about 80 foreign delegates, consisting of 22 AOA member institutions from 18 countries, IOI Asian region member institutions, 5 invited speakers from the US, Australia, Austria, and local ombudsmen, academia and others.

International experts of the IOI and Australian and New Zealand Ombudsman Association (ANZOA) made presentations, sharing their insightful ideas on the development direction for the Asian Ombudsmen. In addition, 18 heads of Asian Ombudsman institutions discussed the future strategy for the Asian ombudsman institutions based on each country's experience and learning.

One of the interesting topics discussed was to create the synergy effect through the integration of anti-corruption and ombudsman functions.

Mr. Vasco Lopes, Legal Advisor of the Commission Against Corruption of Macau (CCAC) introduced the commission's activities to effectively prevent corruption and protect people's rights and interests through running the institution and organization under the dual mandates, focusing the functional integration as necessary element for the fair and free society.

Ms. Diane Welborn, First Vice-President of the IOI, in her opening speech, opined that Ombudsman may carry out comprehensive anti-corruption activities based on transparency and rule of law principle to effectively solve the persistent corruption problems faced by most of the countries, and praised the ACRC as one of the successful Ombudsmen in that regard.

This 15th general assembly of the AOA was the first meeting in its 20 history to be held jointly by national and provincial ombudsman, as well as to take place in a local region, not a capital city. Since this event took place several months before the opening day of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic games, Gangwon province drew attention to the upcoming Olympics from participants from countries around the world.