Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Top awards have been announced for organizations judged to be helping civil society to document war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Eurojust and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court won the 2023 European Ombudsman Award for Good Administration.
The Guidelines for Documenting International Crimes and Human Rights Violations for Criminal Accountability Purposes advise on the collection and preservation of information so that it can be used as admissible evidence in court.
The EU ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly told this site: “Holding the perpetrators of war crimes and human rights violations accountable brings justice for victims and may have a deterrent effect in future conflicts.
“History has shown how hard it can be to prosecute such crimes, which is why finding effective ways to collect and preserve evidence is so vital.”
Speaking generally about the quality of submissions for the Award for Good Administration, the Ombudsman said: “This year’s nominations have once again shown the exceptional quality of the work of EU institutions.
“These range from internal initiatives to create a more efficient administration to the tackling of key issues affecting Europe and the world.”
The awards recognize actions by the EU public administration that have a visible and direct positive impact on the lives of citizens.
Prizes in five categories – including excellence in diversity and inclusion, and excellence in open administration – were also awarded.
The Ombudsman introduced the award in 2017 to recognize excellence in EU public service and to encourage the sharing of good ideas and best practices. This is the fourth edition of the award.
The nominations were assessed by an independent advisory board with the winners chosen by the Ombudsman.
Winner in citizen-oriented delivery category, for “helping civil society document core international crimes”, I sEurojust and the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court
The winner in the communications category is DG COMM at the European Commission for “showing EU solidarity with Ukraine.”
A special award goes to DG JUST at the European Commission for “working with children to produce a new EU strategy on the rights of the child.
Judged to be the “most popular with the public” is Europol for “protecting EU recovery funds from organized crime and fraudsters.”
O’Reilly has served as European Ombudsman since 2013. O’Reilly and her team help people, organizations, and businesses by investigating administrative complaints.
