Republic of Fluid | Constitution Public Register All Portals

Oversight office of the Republic

Defender of Rights

Established under Article 252 of the Constitution · takes a complaint from any person, in any language of record

What happens next

This page sets out the course of a complaint from receipt to an order of a court, and the stage at which each step becomes public.

  1. Same day

    Receipt

    The complaint is registered and a reference is issued. The identity of the complainant is separated from the file at this point and held under Article 253(5).

  2. Within twenty-one days

    Decision to investigate

    Every complaint gets an answer with reasons. A refusal to investigate is written down, states why, and may be reviewed. Article 253(2) leaves no complaint unanswered.

  3. As long as it takes

    Investigation

    The Defender may require documents, records, data, access to premises and systems, and the testimony of anyone holding a public or delegated function. Commercial confidentiality is in no case a ground of refusal. Refusal is itself an offence.

  4. On completion

    Finding, published in full

    Findings are published in full, in open form, free of charge, with the dissenting opinions of members. The Defender sends the finding to no organ before its publication and gives no organ a chance to alter it.

  5. Sixty days

    The body answers

    Where a violation is found, the Defender proposes the remedy and the body answers publicly within sixty days, upon each point. Silence is recorded in the following annual report.

  6. Where the remedy fails

    Court

    The matter is sent to the competent court, and Article 43 governs what the court may order: declaration, injunction, restoration, performance on a fixed timetable, annulment, and reparation.

Orders available only from a court

Article 43(2): remedies comprise a declaration, an injunction, an order of restoration, an order to perform on a fixed timetable, annulment of the offending act, and reparation.

Article 43(3): reparation is owed by the public body, the enterprise or the establishment responsible, in goods, services, labour or restoration of position.

Article 43(4): persons who decided upon or executed a violation are personally liable, and the liability of the organisation extinguishes none of it.

Article 43(5): interim protection is granted where a credible risk of irreparable harm is shown.

Proceedings brought by the Defender

The Defender may bring proceedings in its own name or in support of a complainant, and Article 252(3) allows it to intervene in any proceeding concerning a right of Title III. The complainant chooses between the two, and a proceeding brought in the name of the Defender alone requires no further part from the complainant.

Interim protection under Article 43(5) moves fastest. Where provision has been cut off or a service withdrawn, an application for an interim order can be made within days, and the argument about the merits follows afterwards.

Periods

Median intervals, complaints closed in the year to 30 June 2026.
Stage Median Longest
Receipt to decision on investigation 9 days 21 days
Investigation to published finding 84 days 301 days
Finding to answer of the body 44 days Unanswered in 3 cases
Failure to remedy, to application to a court 17 days 62 days

Published annually and debated in public sitting of the Assembly.