Georges Robert is the new Ombudsman of Seychelles and was sworn in on Thursday with his family present in a ceremony at State House.  

This followed the recommendations from the Constitutional Appointees Authority (CAA). He succeeds Nichole Tirant-Ghérardi.

"I am truly honoured and humbled to have been appointed the fifth Ombudsman of Seychelles,  and I am ready to work for the people of Seychelles to bring the office to the level that it was envisaged since its creation in 1993," said Robert.

The new ombudsman obtained admission as a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Queensland Australia in June 2011 and after he relocated to Seychelles, obtained Admission as an Attorney at Law of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Seychelles in June 2014.

His previous work experience includes solicitor at Carter Capner Law Firm in Australia from 2011 to 2012 and state counsel at the Attorney General's Chambers from 2012 to 2014. He was also an attorney-at-law in the Chambers of Francis Chang-Sam - 2014-2015, magistrate at the Judiciary of Seychelles from 2015-2017, and attorney- at-law, Office of George E Robert from January to December 2019.

Before he was appointed Ombudsman, Robert served as the legal director at the Seychelles Human Rights Commission since December 2019 to date. He has 13 years of experience as an attorney-at-law.

He succeeds Nicole Tirant-Gherardi, who served as Ombudsman for the past seven years and has now been appointed as the new vice-chairperson of the Seychelles Human Rights Commission.

Tirant Gherardi is the new vice-chairperson of the Seychelles Human Rights Commission. (Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY.

Tirant Gherardi was sworn in as the new vice-chairperson of the Commission during the same ceremony along with three other members of the commission. The three new commissioners are Roger Toussaint, Barbare Carolus Andre and Elna Etienne Kumar.

The commissioners of the Information Commission were also presented with their instruments, and Mumtaz Hasan was re-appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner with Peter Lalande and Egbert Rosalie appointed as new commissioners on the Commissioners.

In his address, the President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, asked all those who have taken up these new roles, to perform with the utmost respect. He asked them to ensure that all their decisions remain unbiased and to not allow politics to affect their judgements.

He also spoke on the lack of understanding of the roles of the Ombudsman, the Human Rights Commission, and the Information Commission and urged them to undertake an education campaign, so that people can better appreciate why they are very important for the country.