The Chancellor of Justice as also the Ombudsperson for Children in Estonia hosted on 29-30 March 2012 a cooperation seminar of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian ombudspersons for children to share experiences and working methods in protecting and promoting children’s rights.
The ombudspersons for children introduced their mandates and tasks and compared child protection systems in the Baltic countries. The models of ombudspersons for children differ in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Lithuania there is a special institution for ombudsperson for children’s rights that was established in 2000. In Latvia there is a general ombudsperson who is also acting as the ombudsperson for children in Latvia. The institution of Latvian ombudsperson was established in 2007. In Estonia, the position of the ombudsperson for children was created on 19 March 2011 when the tasks to protect and promote children's rights were added to the Chancellor of Justice by the law.
At the seminar the ombudspersons for children introduced most important recent analyses and researches in the field of children’s rights. Also everyday working methods and practice, how to involve children and promote children’s rights as well as options for further mutual collaboration and work with different international institutions (f.ex. ENOC) were discussed.
The ombudspersons agreed that similar cooperation seminars should be organised regularly and the host of the next meeting in 2013 will be the ombudsperson of Latvia.