Links
The office of the ombudsman has contacts with many other ombudsman and other professional offices. Some of the offices are outlined below.
The ICANN Ombudsman is a member of the International Ombudsman Association which is mostly North American ombudsman with a smaller number of overseas members. They are mostly organisational ombudsman, with a large number who are ombudsman at universities and colleges. There are also many ombudsman from larger corporates who use an ombudsman as part of the executive team. The mission of the International Ombudsman Association is to support and advance the global Organizational Ombudsman profession and ensure that practitioners work to the highest professional standards. http://www.ombudsassociation.org/
The ICANN Ombudsman is an individual member of the International Ombudsman Institute. They are a professional body for classical ombudsman, who are usually government or state or provincial ombudsman. In many countries around the world there is an ombudsman who deals with complaints from the public regarding decisions, actions or omissions of public administration. Although the specific role may vary the holder of this office is usually elected by parliament or appointed by the head of state or government by or after consultation with parliament. The role of the ombudsman is to protect the people against violation of rights, abuse of powers, error, negligence, unfair decisions and maladministration and to improve public administration while making the government's actions more open and its administration more accountable to the public.
The International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.), established in 1978, is the only global organisation for the cooperation of more than 150 Ombudsman institutions. In addition to its periodic conferences the I.O.I. fosters regional and international information exchange. The International Ombudsman Institute is organised in regional chapters in Africa, Asia, Australasia & Pacific, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, and North America. The organisation has three working languages, English, French and Spanish. http://www.theioi.org/
The current ICANN Ombudsman Herb Waye is also a member of the Forum of Canadian Ombudsman. http://www.ombudsmanforum.ca/en/