Mária Patakyová (born 14 May 1963) is a Slovak lawyer and law professor, who served as the Ombudsman in Slovakia from 2017 to 2022. Patakyová was born in

Nové Zámky Nové Zámky (; hu, Érsekújvár; german: Neuhäus ; la, Novum Castrum; tr, Uyvar) is a town in Nové Zámky District in the Nitra Region of southwestern Slovakia. Geography The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, ...

. She studied Law at the

Comenius University Comenius University in Bratislava ( sk, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave) is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is name ...

and has been teaching commercial law at the same university since 1985. Between 2011 and 2017 she served as the Vice-Rector for legal affairs. In 2015 she was nominated by Slovakia to the General Court of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

. Nonetheless, the court rejected the nomination due to Patakyová insufficient command of the French language. In 2017 she was elected Ombudsman as a nominee of the MOST – HÍD party by the National Council. After her election, Patakyová stated she aims to be the "friend of the people" in the office, following the example of her Czech counterpart

Otakar Motejl Otakar Motejl (10 September 1932; Prague – 9 May 2010; Brno) was a Czech lawyer and politician. He served as the first ombudsman of the Czech Republic from 2000 until his death in 2010. In 1998–2000 he served as the Minister of Justice. Li ...

. As the Ombusdsman she was active in fighting for improvement of childbirth conditions in Slovak public health institutions, justice for

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

women affected by

compulsory sterilisation Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done throug ...

, protection of privacy rights of senior citizens. improvement of legal framework for legal adoptions, desegregation of the Slovak education system, more robust environmental protection framework, and improvement of the treatment of foreigners by the alien police. She was also active in pointing out the suspected infringements of human rights due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

contagion measures. Due to her active participation at

Pride parades A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events som ...

in Slovakia as well as her general support for the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

community, she was target of severe criticism by the conservatives in the National Council. Following the expiration of Patakyová's mandate by the end of March 2022, the National Council repeatedly failed to elect her successor. The seat of Ombudsman was, therefore, vacant for nearly eight months. In November 2022, the parliament elected Róbert Dobrovodský as the new Ombudsman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patakyova, Maria 1963 births Living people People from Nové Zámky Comenius University alumni Academic staff of Comenius University Ombudsmen in Slovakia