Title page
Contents
Foreword 3
Acronyms 6
Executive summary 7
1. Introduction 10
1.1. Background 10
1.2. Regional context and emergence of BO institutions 11
1.3. About this study 13
2. Mission and powers 14
2.1. Mission 14
2.2. Powers/rights 14
3. Independence, integrity, transparency and accountability 17
3.1. Independence 17
3.2. Accountability and transparency 19
3.3. Integrity 20
4. Resources 21
5. Complaints procedures 22
5.1. Eligibility criteria and submission of complaints 22
5.2. Further criteria are applied frequently 22
5.3. Review of complaints 23
6. Impact 25
6.1. Total caseload 25
6.2. Successful resolution rate 26
6.3. Financial and non-financial impact 27
6.4. Profiles of complaints and complainants 27
6.5. Systemic recommendations 28
7. Conclusions: A promising start 30
7.1. Recommendations 31
Table 1.1. BOs in selected countries: establishment, legal basis and placement 13
Table 3.1. Accountability requirements of BO institutions 19
Table 3.2. Inclusion of key statistics in annual BO reports 20
Table 3.3. Key types of information available on BO websites 20
Table 4.1. Human and financial resources of BO Institutions 21
Table 5.1. Criteria for admissibility of complaints 23
Table 5.2. Elements of complaint review process 24
Table 6.1. Work of BO institutions: Key annual indicators 25
Boxes
Box 1.1. The HLRM in Argentina 11
Box 2.1. Country highlight: BO's right to access prisons in Uzbekistan 15
Box 3.1. Country highlight: Supervisory Board and BO selection process in Ukraine 18
Box 5.1. Country highlight: Electronic case management system in Ukraine 24
Box 6.1. Country highlight: BO's "delivery plan" in Kyrgyzstan 26
Box 6.2. Country highlight: Registry of problems in Kazakhstan 29