What the heck is an "ombudsman?"
"An ombudsman is a government official charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens. The term arose from its use in Sweden, with the Parliamentary ombudsman instituted in 1809 to safeguard the rights of citizens by establishing a supervisory agency independent of the executive branch. The word ombudsman and its specific meaning has since been adopted in to English as well as other languages, and ombudsmen has been instituted by other governments and organizations such as the European Union.
The origin of the word is found in Old Norse and the word umbuds man, meaning representative. The first preserved use in Swedish is from 1552. It is also used in the other Scandinavian languages such as the Icelandic "umboðsmaður", the Norwegian "ombudsmann" and the Danish "ombudsmand". An ombudsman doesn't necessarily have to be appointed by government; for instance they may work for a corporation, a newspaper, an NGO, or even for the general public. On the other hand, an ombudsman of an non-governmental organization obviously does not carry any special governmental powers or sanction abilities."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman - accessed 04-27-05
The origin of the word is found in Old Norse and the word umbuds man, meaning representative. The first preserved use in Swedish is from 1552. It is also used in the other Scandinavian languages such as the Icelandic "umboðsmaður", the Norwegian "ombudsmann" and the Danish "ombudsmand". An ombudsman doesn't necessarily have to be appointed by government; for instance they may work for a corporation, a newspaper, an NGO, or even for the general public. On the other hand, an ombudsman of an non-governmental organization obviously does not carry any special governmental powers or sanction abilities."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman - accessed 04-27-05
posted by MizG at 8:33 AM
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