The ''Umboðsmaður Alþingis'' ( Icelandic for, literally, "Ombudsman f theParliament") is an

ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

appointed by the ''

Alþingi The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what la ...

'' (the Parliament of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

) to oversee investigation of complaints against

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

and

government department Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations used by first-level Executive (government), executive bodies in the Machinery of government, machinery of governments that manage a specific se ...

s in Iceland. The post of Umboðsmaður Alþingis was established from January 1, 1988 by the decree of law 13/1987. In 1997, by the decree of law 85/1997, its remit was extended to local government. From the start, Gaukur Jörundsson was elected by the Althing as the umboðsmaður. He was reelected twice, the last time with a mandate to December 31, 1999; but resigned from November 1, 1998. Tryggvi Gunnarsson took his place, first temporarily selected for the rest of Jörundsson's mandate, and then formally elected for the next period, and then reelected five times for full periods. However, he retired at his own request in the middle of the last one, which was effective from 1 May 2021. He also has had to take leave from his office for three shorter periods, when he was engaged in other matters, as in the special investigation commission for the causes of the

2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis The Icelandic financial crisis was a major financial crisis, economic and political event in Iceland between 2008 and 2010. It involved the default (finance), default of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks in late 2 ...

. Thus,

Róbert Ragnar Spanó Róbert Ragnar Spanó (born 27 August 1972) is an Icelandic-Italian jurist, judge, and former president of the European Court of Human Rights. He has been a partner at the multinational law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher since the end of this ...

served as Umboðsmaður Alþingis ''ad hoc'' 2009-2013. In April 2021 the Althing elected

Skúli Magnússon Skúli Magnússon (12 December 1711 – 9 November 1794) was an Icelandic civil servant. He is often referred to as the ''father of Reykjavík.'' due to King Frederik V of Denmark donating the estate of Reykjavík to Magnússon's Innréttingar ...

as new Ombudsman for a full period, starting 1 May 2021.

References

External links

Official website
{{Iceland topics, state=autocollapse

Ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

Ombudsman posts 1987 establishments in Iceland Independent government agencies of Iceland