A complaint to the JO (Justitieombudsmannen) - or to the Parliamentary Ombudsmen (Riksdagens ombudsmän) which is the official name of the Institution - can be made by anybody who feels that he or she or someone else has been treated wrongly or unjustly by a public authority or an official employed by the civil service or local government. (In other words it´s not necessary for a person to be a Swedish citizen or have reached a certain age to be able to lodge a complaint.) The Institution has no jurisdiction, however, over the actions of members of the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament), the government or individual members of the cabinet, the Chancellor of Justice or members of county or municpal councils. Nor do newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, trade unions, banks, insurance companies, doctors in private practice, lawyers etc. come within the ambit of the Ombudsmen. Other supervisory agencies exist for these areas, such as the Press Council (Pressens opinionsnämnd), the Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen), the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) and the Swedish Bar Association (Svenska advokatsamfundet).
Sweden has had an Ombudsman Institution since 1809. At that time Sweden was ruled by the King and therefore the Riksdag, which then represented the Four Estates, considered that some institution that was independent of the King was needed in order to ensure that laws and statutes were obeyed. For this reason it elected a Parliamentary Ombudsman and still continues to do so. The first Ombudsman was appointed in 1810. Even though nearly two centuries have now elapsed, today the Parliamentary Ombudsmen still follow the basic principles that have applied since then.
An Ombudsman is an individual elected by the Riksdag to ensure that courts of law and other agencies as well as the public officials they employ (and also anyone else whose work involves the exercise of public authority) comply with laws and statutes and fulfil their obligations in all other respects. An Ombudsman is elected for a four-year period and can be re-elected. Although there is no formal requirement for an Ombudsman to be a lawyer, in practice all but the first have had legal training. In 1941 the stipulation that only men could be elected as Ombudsmen was rescinded, since then five women have been elected to the office. Today there are four Ombudsmen, two women and two men. Each Ombudsman has her or his own area of responsibility (supervisory area). One of the Ombudsmen has the title of Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman and is responsible for administration, deciding, for instance, which areas of responsibility are to be allocated to the other Ombudsmen. However, he cannot 'intervene' in another Ombudsman's inquiry or adjudication in any case within his or her ambit. Each Ombudsman has a direct individual responsibility to the Riksdag for his or her actions. The Annual Reports - which is one of the official publications of the Swedish Riksdag - is submitted to the Standing Committee on the Constitution, which then draws up its own written report and notifies the Riksdag.
The term JO (Justitieombudsmannen) can refer both to the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen and to an individual Ombudsman.
The Ombudsmen's inquiries (supervision) are based on complaints from the general public, cases initiated by the Ombudsmen themselves and on observations made during the course of inspections. Every year the Parliamentary Ombudsmen receives almost 6,000 complaints - of widely varying kinds. Most of the Ombudsmen's work consists of dealing with complaints.
What ' powers and sanctions' do the Ombudsmen have to their disposal when, in the course of an inquiry, it is discovered that a public authority or an official has applied the law erroneously? The most extreme recourse allows an Ombudsman to act as a special prosecutor and bring charges against the official for malfeasance or some other irregularity. This very rarely happens, but the mere awareness of this possibility means a great deal for the Ombudsmen's authority!
The Parliamentary Ombudsmen also have the right to initiate disciplinary procedures against an official for misdemeanours. The most frequent outcome is, however, a critical advisory comment from an Ombudsman or some form of recommendation. An Ombudsman's opinion is never legally binding. The Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman is politically neutral.
Last modified: 2008-09-29
