Strasbourg, 14/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published a report on Tuesday 13 October analysing recent developments in Austria and flags up “hate speech on the internet, the activities of organisations cultivating racist ideologies and difficulties for victims of racism and discrimination to obtain aid and redress” despite “major efforts by the authorities to set up an effective integration strategy”.
Amendments to the criminal code are moving in the right direction, the report says. The Press Council was re-established in 2010 - in response to an ECRI recommendation - and has issued several decisions condemning hate speech in the media.
The first ever National Action Plan on Integration was adopted also in 2010. It is continuously being improved and its impact monitored. Among its achievements is that children with migration backgrounds benefit from a free compulsory pre-school year.
In a different area, a special form of registered partnership was introduced for same-sex couples, again in 2010 and courts have lowered legal preconditions for gender recognition of transsexual persons.
Nevertheless, there are gaps in the criminal law provisions. Some only target national-socialist and not all racist activities. Hate speech on the internet is not regularly monitored, and hate speech by politicians not systematically countered.
The ECRI report also notes that not all children of migration backgrounds acquire adequate knowledge of German. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons experience relatively high discrimination. The high number of anti-discrimination institutions and laws undermines their effectiveness, the report says. Among its recommendations, ECRI argues that the various anti-discrimination acts and institutions of the Federation and the Länder should be merged in order to improve the protection afforded to victims of racism and discrimination and that “the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems,” should be ratified.
The above recommendations form part of a wider raft but require prompt implementation and will be reviewed by ECRI in two years' time. The report as a whole covers the period from November 2014 to March 2015. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)