Strengthen efforts to tackle racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic incidents, including through the disaggregation of hate crimes data
Proponent:
According to the ZARA Racism Report 2023, people with migration experience, especially from African or Asian countries, are disproportionately affected by discrimination. This discrimination manifests itself in various areas of life, including the labour market, education and access to public services (see ZARA Report 2023: https://assets.zara.or.at/media/rassismusreport/ZARA_RassismusReport_2023_DE.pdf). The ECRI report by the Ombud for Equal Treatment emphasises that despite progress in the legal framework to combat discrimination, practical implementation is often inadequate. To meet these challenges, comprehensive measures are needed to promote equal treatment and combat racism. This includes both political initiatives and social efforts to raise awareness and education. Austria has not yet implemented some of the recommendations of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) from the 2015 report „General Policy Recommendations No. 15 on Combating Hate Speech“. These include, in particular, the pending ratification of the „Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime“ and „Protocol No. 12 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms“.
ECRI also emphasises that politicians should take a clear stance against racist hate speech and that political parties should introduce codes of conduct that prohibit the use of hate speech. These recommendations have not yet been heeded. There are no clear responsibilities at federal level in Austria to combat anti-Black racism, anti-Muslim racism and racism in general, and hardly any effective measures have been taken. There is also a lack of targeted awareness-raising programmes that address discrimination against people with disabilities and limited abilities and address aspects of self-empowerment and human rights. The need to implement structural changes and preventive measures to effectively counteract discrimination is emphasised by various organisations and initiatives. It should be critically noted that the public discourse often focuses on so-called „immigrant anti-Semitism“ and thus accuses people with a history of migration from Turkey and Arabic-speaking countries in particular of anti-Semitism across the board. The Documentation and Advice Centre on Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Racism (Dokustelle) plays a central role in this. This centre was founded in 2014 and systematically collects data on Islamophobic incidents, offers advice in several languages and carries out awareness-raising and educational measures (see the 2022 report of the Documentation Centre on Anti-Muslim Racism and Islamophobia: https://dokustelle.at/fileadmin/Dokuments/Reports/Report_2022/Dokustelle-Report-2022.pdf). The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRAU) has updated its database on Islamophobia, which provides comprehensive information on hate crimes and hate speech against Muslims. In Austria, the database shows that Muslims continue to be the target of hate crimes and discrimination. The FRA reports a large number of incidents ranging from verbal abuse to physical violence. These incidents are also reflected in the Austrian statistics, which show an increasing number of reports and documented cases of Islamophobia (see Austrian database: https://fra.europa.eu/en/databases/anti-muslim-hatred/case-law?country%5B%5D=AT). A large number of measures have been taken since 2021 to combat all forms of antisemitism. A central coordination centre for the topic of anti-Semitism has been set up at the Federal Chancellery and a national strategy against anti-Semitism has been published (see https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/dam/jcr:8bd2975f-0483-4e74-abd9-d66446195d7c/antisemitismusstrategie.pdf). Even though the position has now been downgraded to a department in the Policy Section, it still exists in principle. There are two implementation reports (for 2021 and 2022). For the education sector, a strategy paper on the „Prevention of antisemitism through education“ was developed in 2022, which contains recommendations for the implementation of the National Strategy against Antisemitism for the Austrian education administration and teacher training institutions (see: https://oead.at/fileadmin/Dokumente/oead.at/KIM/Downloadcenter/OeAD_E.AT_Strategiepapier_FIN_01.pdf). These recommendations were discussed at the symposium on „Preventing antisemitism through education“ in September 2022. In 2022, the National Forum against Antisemitism was also established to pool knowledge, combat antisemitism and promote Jewish life in Austria. The body is made up of representatives from the federal government, the provinces, municipalities, social partners, academia, religious communities, Jewish museums and civil society. A working group on the documentation of anti-Semitic incidents has been established with the aim of learning from the experiences of other organisations that already document racist, anti-Semitic, etc. incidents. The aim is to learn from the experiences of other organisations already documenting racist, anti-Semitic, etc. incidents in order to set up an anti-Semitism documentation centre that meets current requirements. Parliament also commissioned a study on anti-Semitism in Austria, which was presented in April 2023 (see https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/fachinfos/publikationen/Langbericht-Antisemitismus-2022-Oesterreichweite-Ergebnisse.pdf). As part of the Government Plan 2025-2029, the federal government is pursuing this goal through close cooperation with all stakeholders (see Government Plan 2ß025-2029: https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/die-bundesregierung/regierungsdokumente.html).
