citizens and his associates about problems in the exercise of rights before public authorities and submit complaints for their handling. The project was completed by the regional conference which gathered representatives of ombudsperson institutions from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Turkey, Montenegro and Croatia who exchanged experiences on availability of their institutions to citizens, the position of national minorities, monitoring activity in the fight against human trafficking, and strengthening of the ombudsperson institution in compliance with Venice principles. For the institution of the Protector of Citizens the conference was of multiple importance and its regional character contributed to strengthening of the cooperation and networking of Balkan ombudspersons who discussed the most current topics in the sphere of promotion and protection of human and minority rights. Except for greater visibility and availability of the institution to citizens, which is indicated by recorded growth of complaints to the Protector of Citizens from municipalities and cities included in the project, the project contributed also to improved cooperation and connection with relevant bodies, institutions and civil society organizations at the local level and it also contributed to the dialog on the importance of the establishment of the institution of local ombudspersons at municipalities and cities which still have not used this possibility. The additional value of the project is the cooperation with the institution of the Ombudsman of Bulgaria through joint visits to local self-government units in which the majority population are members of the Bulgarian national minority. In this period the Memorandum on Cooperation and Understanding between these two institutions was signed. The Protector of Citizens even during this reporting period participated in major projects and programs of regional and international organizations.  In cooperation with the OSCE Mission in Serbia, he continued to monitor in which manner the City Center for Social Work of Belgrade applies the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence;  In the sphere of national minority rights, the Protector of Citizens conducted the analysis of the condition in the field of execution of public authorizations of national councils of national minorities. Results of both surveys will be published this year;  High Commissariat of United Nations for Refugees supported the survey on the application of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma conducted by the Protector of Citizens in cooperation with the Initiative for Economic and Social Rights A11 and published by the end of 2019. In this reporting period, too, the Protector of Citizens participated in the joint project of the Council of Europe and European Union titled ���Horizontal funds for the Western Balan and Turkey”, in two components:  In the field of strengthening of the protection of human rights of persons deprived of liberty and convicted persons, the comprehensive overviews of findings and recommendations of the Protector of Citizens on the protection of rights of persons deprived of liberty, persons with mental delays in social and health care institutions and persons detained at police stations were published;  In the field of strengthening of the protection of national minorities, the Protector of Citizens participated in the execution of the publication “Introduction to the exercise of the right to the official use of languages and scripts of national minorities” as well as in trainings of employees at local self-government units to this topic. - 127 -