Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution Names First Ombuds

Francisco ("Paco") Zapater has been appointed the first Ombudsperson for IPHES (Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social), the transdisciplinary research institution in Catalonia, Spain. In this new role, he will serve as a resource for IPHES staff, including affiliated employees of the Research Centers of Catalonia (CERCA, Centres de Recerca de Catalunya). Regulations adopted in 2022 state that the Ombuds "will act with complete discretion and be guided by the principles of neutrality, independence, and confidentiality, with more auctoritas than power, more justice than right, and more humanism than bureaucracy." 

Zapater is a retired attorney and his legal practice included criminal and family law. In 2004, he was engaged to serve a five-year term as the Ombuds at nearby Universitat Rovira i Virgili. (IPHES Ombuds; IPHES Reglament; Diari de Tarragona.)