Talk:Welsh Language Commissioner
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Ombudsman?
[edit]I've for some time been in doubt whether or not to include this article, and those about the individual commissioners, within the Category:Ombudsmen tree. Now, the original meanings of the term "ombudsman" are very close to "commissioner" or "representative"; and in Scandinavian languages "ombudsman" and its cognates are still sometimes used in those old senses (sometimes creating some confusion). However, IMHO, the instances in the aforementioned category tree essentially should be restricted to those where there are ombudsperson functions more in the modern sense, inspired by the way the office of the Swedish justitieombudsmannen had developed. (Originally, justitieombudsmannen was the parliament's 'commissioner for justice', surveying the executive powers offices and civil servants. In the Swedish constitution of 1809, parlamentarism was explicitly rejected, but giving the parliament some control measures was not.)
However, as far as I can see from this article and from the (English language) web pages of the office, the Welsh language commissioner does have some of the 'modern ombudsman' functions. It is officially appointed, but seems to be supposed to act on its own initiative or as a result of received complaints from the public in order to certify that (among others) the various public offices and institutions comply to and act in favour of a specific kind of equal rights, namely the right for Welsh speakers to be met on an equal footing with English speakers. (It is less clear that the office is supposed and empowered to act also against discrimination of English speaking Welshpeople, compared to Welsh speakers, if this ever occurs; but perhaps so far this never has happened.) Therefore, I now think that it should be included in the ombudsmen category tree, and plan to do so, unless someone argues against it within a week or so. JoergenB (talk) 16:17, 20 September 2022 (UTC)