The Universal Periodic Review is the United Nations Human Rights Council’s new mechanism to verify the human rights performance of all 192 UN Member States based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and any human rights treaty the Member State has adopted. The review is now in its fourth and final year for the first cycle of reviews.

Austria and Australia are both up for review in the last week of January 2011: Austria on Australia Day, January 26 and Australia the next day, January 27.

The documents on Austria can be found here, for Australia click here.

The Austrian NGO Coalition for the review can be found here.

ECRI – the Council of Europe’s Commission Against Racism and Intolerance – has released its latest Report on Austria. The Commission states among others:

Racism in public discourse remains a worrying issue, in the absence of an adequate response by the authorities. Far-right political parties have openly exploited prejudice against minorities, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, Jews and Muslims and their statements have not been always condemned by mainstream political parties in a sufficiently strong manner. In addition, some media have contributed to creating an atmosphere of hostility against members of minority groups and asylum seekers.

In its previous Report on Austria, the Commission had voiced concern “that the press has contributed to a certain “ethnicisation” of crimes, particularly as regards Black Africans and drug dealing or Eastern Europeans and certain types of organised crime.”

Sad – but not surprising – the poverty numbers in Austria, as in many other countries, are climbing. The already staggering numbers of one million – out of eight – in or on the margins of poverty have been increased significantly: according to Martin Schenk of the Armutskonferenz, the amount of people living in poverty will rise by at least 100.000 by the end of the year.

In its latest Report amnesty international Austria discusses the question of structural racism in the Austrian police force and asks: “victim or suspect?” as it documents the frequent correlation of “race” and “police violence.” “Migrants or persons of an ethnic minority are far more easily suspected to have committed a crime than “white” Austrians,” concludes amnesty.

Migranten oder Angehörige ethnischer Minderheiten geraten viel leichter als weiße Österreicher unter Verdacht, Straftaten begangen zu haben. 

The police denies any pattern or other wrongdoing.

The US Department of State released its annual human rights report. Austria’s write up discusses various areas of human rights and raises a string of concerns. It also observes that “There appeared to be relatively little representation of ethnic minorities at the national level.”

Ahead of the elections in Carynthia – on Sunday, March 1 2009 – a piece for derstandard.at by Tanja Malle – “Verflixt und Zugetafelt” – discussed the underlying issues in the ongoing debate over topographical town signs for the Slovene minority in the province. As Malle rightly states, the ongoing debate over the number of town signs is barring a much needed discussion over the fostering of minority culture, particularly language education. The political climate created by the town sign debate has paved the way for minimalist – or as Malle describes it – “alibi” provision of language initiatives in kindergartens and other educational fora.

The BBC reports on one of the many asylum seekers across Europe who would love to work but is prohibited to do so. 

The situation of asylum seekers is comparably dire in Austria. One of the high-profile entities assisting asylum seekers, the Integrations-Haus — Integration House — urged the responsible Minister for Interior to reflect both the State’s responsibility and the obligation to treat everyone equally in policies protecting and supporting asylum seekers:

Scathing criticism by the Council of Europe’s GRECO on corruption patterns in Austria.

Austrians today cast their ballots. The two far-right parties, Freedom Party and BZÖ, almost garnered more support than the Social Democrats who, despite their worst election result ever, came in first. 

Reuters has a report.

Today is Equal Pay Day: due to the gender gap in income in Austria – women continue to earn significantly less in all sectors except the public sector – women are essentially working for free as of today until the end of the year. Although this fact would obviously be a significant contribution to public discourse, the ongoing election campaign is aparently standing in the way of adequate attention on Equal Pay Day. Note that according to the last census women do comprise half of the populace.

The Austrian Federal Association of Psychotherapists (ÖBVP) has issued a strong call against racism in the ongoing election campaign.

The statement decries “racism and exclusion” in the current National Council election. Highlighting that there is no agreed definition and no consensus on the origins of racism, the Association describes racism through the individualization thesis (Individualisierungsthese): 

There is a significant correlation between extreme-right orientation and a primary focus on money, personal advancement and social status. There is an over-identification with achievement and advancement ideologies. 

Highlighting the racist spins that the migration debate currently has in Austria, the Association states that the perceived threat is not the immigrant(s) but the person’s own anxiety to fail or anxiety of inability. “Strength and superiority are the most important norms.” The statement adds: “Racist tendencies coincide with the desire for a white, heterosexual patriarchal society.”

Since hardly anyone knows the full extent of their human rights in Austria, it is not surprising that a major human rights achievement – Austria’s ratification of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – 50 years ago went unnoticed today.

The impact of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights can be seen in the scope of freedom of speech and the – albeit slight – amendment of criminal provisions against “sodomy”. However, the implementation and therewith the enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Convention appear to still be largely an issue for a select few.

The UN expert body under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racism (CERD) recently review Austria’s record. 

The picture that emerges is rather not pretty. Added to the misery of the experts’ findings is the fact that no reports were filed by civil society. Note that most UN bodies, when examining human rights issues in nation states, now accept parallel reports compiled by NGOs or other voices from within civil society. It is a unique opportunity for civil society to reach out to international fora and it is frequently utilized by representatives of other countries.

The concluding observations state among a plethora of scrutiny and pertaining recommendations:

“The Committee is concerned about reported instances of hate speech by politicians, targeting migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, persons of African origin and members of minorities.” 

This would be a violation of Article 4 (c) CERD. 

So: “The Committee recalls that the exercise of the right to freedom of expression carries special duties and responsibilities, including the obligation not to disseminate racist ideas. It recommends that the State party take resolute action to counter any tendency, especially from politicians, to target, stigmatize, stereotype or profile people on the basis of race, colour, descent and national or ethnic origin, or to use racist propaganda in politics.” 

The concluding observations may also be found online.

The partners in Austria’s coalition of social democrats and christian conservatives can no longer agree to work together. Elections are to be held in September. “The two parties have been bickering since forging their “grand coalition” in early 2007 following the October 2006 elections that gave the Social Democrats a slight lead,” observes the IHT.