Jurisdiction Antigua and Barbuda | Annual budget $ | |
Headquarters St John's, Antigua and Barbuda Agency executive Dr Hayden Thomas, Ombudsman | ||
The Office of the Ombudsman is an independent officer of Parliament appointed under Section 66 of the Antigua and Barbuda Constitution. It is accredited as a national human rights institution (NHRI) but with the lowest ('C') status accorded by the International Co-ordinating Committee of NHRIs (ICC). It has only limited participation in the regional NHRI network, the Network of National Institutions in the Americas. Like most ombudsman offices it is primarily concerned with addressing maladministration in public bodies, rather than human rights violations.
The current Ombudsman is Dr Hayden Thomas, who was appointed Antigua and Barbuda's first Ombudsman in 1995 and was later elected President of the Caribbean Ombudsman Association, member of the Board of Directors of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Special Fund for Ombudsman and other National Human Rights Institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.