Francesc Vendrell i Bayona is the Director of Territory and Consumer Rights for the Catalan Ombudsman’s Office. During his lecture, Vendrell discussed how rights have been guaranteed as the sociocultural landscape has changed.

The speaker highlighted the importance of the Catalan Ombudsman’s Office. “The Ombudsman’s role is to be a theoretically neutral organization that guarantees citizens’ rights when dealing with the public administration, without entering into debate on public policy”, he said.

Vendrell concluded his lecture by referring to the “moral power” of the Catalan Ombudsman’s Office and gave a recent example of how the organization was able to bring about change. He explained that the Ombudsman’s Office had informed the Catalan Parliament that several companies were charging for services that were never fully delivered. Although these cases will not lead to any official legal change, the Parliament took the situation seriously, thanks to the Office’s “moral power”.