Future perspectives and projects The I.O.I held its first annual Board of Directors meeting at its new location in November 2009. The members of the Board of Directors, who travelled from all six regions of the I.O.I., visited the new offices of the I.O.I. in the former ballroom of the AOB and laid the groundwork for the further development of the I.O.I. The activities in the core sectors of human rights, basic liberties and the rule of law will be expanded. The members from the new democracies and the emerging countries, in which support for the rule of law and the battle against corruption have special priority, will profit particularly from this expansion. Furthermore the I.O.I. will enhance its function as an information and service platform and will also expand the training sector. Developing and conveying best-practice models and benchmarks for fair treatment of the people by the authorities is in the forefront. The first concrete project will be a seminar offered in the fall of 2010 in Vienna for employees of ombudsman offices; it was developed by the Ombudsperson from Ontario, Canada, and is called “Sharpening your Teeth”. Practice-oriented events of this kind organised by the I.O.I will be supplemented by additional research. Moreover, collaboration with other international organisations is planned, for example with the World Bank, which has shown interest in projects relative to good governance. Bilateral contacts and projects Human Rights Advisory Council Marocco Hungarian Human Rights Commissioner 24 Sharing experiences and collaboration with ombudsman offices and comparable institutions abroad was again given great importance in the past year. In April 2009 the President of the Moroccan Human Rights Advisory Council, which was founded in 1990, presented the work that this institution has been doing during his visit in the AOB offices. The Council is working closely with the Diwan al-Madhalim, the Moroccan version of an ombudsman. The Hungarian Human Rights Commissioner Maté Szábó, who was in Vienna in June 2009 to participate in talks with the AOB, provided an overview of the history of his institution as a product of the democratisation process after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also spoke about current focal points of his work, which include the rights of children, child poverty, the crisis situation of the aged, as well as problems that have arisen in connection with the financial crisis.