Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits had a remote meeting with Juris Jansons, Ombudsman of the Republic of Latvia. President congratulated the ombudsman on re-election for the third term.
President and Ombudsman discussed the priorities of Mr Jansons’ previous tenure and plans for current period. Ombudsman’s agenda includes good governance, human rights, digital services and education. One of the main topics of conversation was how Ombudsman’s priorities have been affected by everyday challenges linked to COVID-19 pandemic.
Ombudsman’s office is currently very much focused on healthcare issues at care homes, said Mr Jansons. Youth are also at the focus. ‘Ready for life’ is a special scheme through which youngsters can acquire vital election skills and enhance their knowledge about key political and government issues. This spring young people will take part in human rights moot court competition, which will explore the fundamental rights implications of COVID-19 restrictions.
President Levits and Ombudsman Jansons discussed ways of improving horizontal cooperation across various national policy areas. ‘Digital governance, quality of life of people with special needs and other areas fall within the common responsibility of several ministries and government bodies, and yet none of them oversees the whole area. It is important to define clear political ownership of these cross-cutting policy issues,’ said Egils Levits.
Both officials agreed that government and local authorities still have many issues in terms of good governance. Mr Jansons underlined that good governance will be one of the key priorities of the office for the current period. ‘Good governance is not an easy task, it takes effort to build it, and Ombudsman’s Office is ready to actively work with government and legislator on interpreting and application of these principles. We have also designed special children and youth activities to start teaching these important national issues at an early age,’ said Juris Jansons.
President Levits raised the issue of how digital services affect our individual rights. ‘Universal accessibility of digital services is an important matter. As we have already witnessed, it affects distance learning, how people communicate with their local and national government on issues linked to the state of emergency. Then there is also the quality of such services. User-friendliness and convenience of these services is also crucial. They need to be designed appropriately. I believe that the design of digital services is a matter of rights. We all have the right to be heard. It is an absolute must in the age of information,’ said President Levits.
Mr Jansons mentioned several complaints that have reached the Ombudsman’s Office. Applicants are objecting to the way some government and local authorities are providing remote services during the emergency when they are forced to work remotely. Some services are available in limited amount to people who have no computer. ‘Access to services is a matter of rights, no doubt. And we must take that into account when designing our smart e-governance policy,’ said Ombudsman.
Egils Levits and Juris Jansons also discussed the legal conflict between the right to healthcare and right to assembly during the COVID-19 restrictions, and legal dimension of European COVID-19 green certificate.