International activities International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.) 36 Expanded activities The International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.), whose Secretary General Ombudsman Peter Kostelka has been since 2009, links currently 147 independent public sector ombudsman institutions worldwide that monitor and control public administration at the national, re-gional, and local level. The I.O.I. has regional groups in Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as North America and Europe and has members from more than 90 countries. Since autumn 2009, the AOB has been operating the General Secretariat of the international organisation and now, in its third year, has been able to significantly expand its activities. Focus on training programmes First of all, the transfer of knowledge was intensified. In June 2011, the General Secretariat of the I.O.I. held a so called “Sharpening Your Teeth” training programme for investigation experts of ombudsman institutions for the second time in Vienna; this programme was developed by the Ombudsman of Ontario (Canada) and 37 participants from more than 20 countries and five continents attended the three-day seminar on systemic investigative proceedings. Nine scholarships funded by I.O.I. membership fees made it possible for ombudsman institutions with limited resources from Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Romania, Mauritius, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia und Sint Maarten to take part in the seminar. Due to the continuing high demand from member institutions, the General Secretariat of the I.O.I. will organise another training programme in Vienna in autumn 2012. In addition to this, regional training programmes are planned in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Europe. Regional projects Using the same source of funding, the Executive Committee of the I.O.I. was able to grant subsidies for regional projects last year for the first time based on a transparent tender procedure. The focus of the projects was the transfer of knowledge between world regions and the sharing of experience within the regions on topics of current interest. In Europe the implementation process of the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) has often led to new responsibilities for ombudsman institutions who had been charged with assuming a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) function. In