https://www.stangl-taller.at/claudia/beruf/national coalition

Claudia Stangl-Taller, Ombudsoffice Upper Austria

SECOND REGIONAL MEETING OF NGO FORUMS IN EUROPE

STOCKHOLM, MAY 26^th-28^th 1999

Austria, National Coalition,

Conference of Ombudsperson for Children and Youth

NGO´s and the political will

Methods for monitoring and lobbying of national NGO reports to the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child.

Austria has a federal state structure, being divided into 9 federal states. Therefore Austrian Ombudsoffices for Children and Youth were set up in all nine Austrian states. In addition a Federal Children´s Ombudsperson was established within the Ministry of Environment, Youth and Family.

This Child and Youth Ombudssystem was founded by the Austrian Youth Welfare Act, a federal law of principles in 1989. So the Ombudssystem is as old as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Conference of Ombudspersons for Children and Youth consisting of the Ombudspersons for Children and Youth in Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Upper Austria, Vienna and Vorarlberg is a member of the National Coalition of Austria (hereinafter called "NC").

The NC for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a national umbrella body in Austria which represents a wide range of non-governmental organisations and independent institutions concerned with the rights and welfare of children and was founded in 1997.

Other members are for example:

• Austrian Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Movement
• Austrian Committee for Unicef
• Austrian Federal Youth Council
• Catholic Children Movement of Austria
• Socialdemocratic Children Movement

The first NGO report of the NC was presented in June 1998 in Geneva at the presessional meeting for the Initial Report of Austria.

Austria signed the Convention and ratified it with reservation on 5. September 1992, which means Austria will perform the contract through passing its own laws within the meaning of the Convention. The Convention is not directly applicable and the rights are not written down in the Constitutional Law.

The Initial Report of Austria was ready in fall 1996, more than two years after the required date. NGOs have not been sufficiently involved in the process, the ombudspersons received the Initial Report to make comments on it within a period of one week.

The NC demands, that NGOs and independent organisations will be involved from the beginning for the next report.

The first NGO report &endash; from March 1998 &endash; regarding the Initial Report contains a lot of demands and recommendations.

Here are some:

• Reduction of the age of majority from 19 to 18.
  It is already existing a bill and this demand will be fulfilled in the year 2000.
• Obligate attorneys for children and youth in front of the court.
  Pilot projects are running in five federal states in collaboration between the ombudspersons and the chambers of the lawyers.
• Sexual abuse: Education and continued education for judges, attorneys, police officers, doctors, ...
• In Vienna already exists a special pool of judges for the subject "sexual abuse".
  support for victims
  In autumn 1999 in one federal state there will be a pilot project called "ProKids". It is a kind of "process-company" beginning with the announcing of the suspicion and ending when the wellbeing of the victim is restored.
  special rooms for children and youth at the court
  In all Provincial Courts are existing these rooms since 1998.
  statutory period of limitation beginning with majority
  This demand is already fulfilled (amendment of the Criminal Code in October 1998).
  prevention
  In January/February 1999 the Ombudsoffice of Upper Austria made a PR-campaign concerning the subject "sexual abuse" with posters, advertisements in all important newspapers and folders as a supplement for all 500000 households in Upper Austria.
  In 1998 and 1999 the Ombudsoffice of Upper Austria organised an exhibition in 6 districts of Upper Austria with the title "No secure place &endash; Sexual violence on children &endash; prevent/recognise/help". These exhibitions where shown in combination with a detailed program for parents, social workers, teachers and workshops for girls and boys, ...
• Distress call for children and youth free of charge, available for every child in the country.
  In the local parliament of Upper Austria was a motion of the Green Party in May 1999. But it was turned down.
• Good availability of psychotherapists and social institutions also and especially on the countryside.
  The waiting periods specially for victims of sexual abuse are up to six months.
• No detention for unaccompanied under-age refugees.
  There are for example statistics from Upper Austria (1998) that say that there were 108 under-age refugees in detention.
  Per 11.02.1999 were still 54 under-age refugees in detention in Austria.
  In March 1999 the Conference of Austrian Ombudspersons passed a declaration concerning unaccompanied under-age refugees. The most important demand was "no detention for unaccompanied under-age refugees".
  In April 1999 the local parliament of Upper Austria brought in a resolution to the federal government with the same demand "no detention for unaccompanied under-age refugees.
• Information on the Convention (article 42).
  Although the NGOs and independent institutions did most of the work so far (e.g. postcards, booklets and brochures) the Convention is still largely unknown in Austria.
• Availability of the Initial Report (article 44, Paragraph 6).
  The NC regrets that the government has neither presented the Initial Report submitted in 1996 to a wide public nor held public meetings on this matter, the Initial Report is only published in English and is nowhere on offer. But there is a progress. The Concluding Observations adopted of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on 29th of January 1999 are already available in German.
• Anchoring the children and youth rights in the Constitutional Law.
  The Austrian board of ombudspersons and the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Environment, Youth and the Family ordered a comprehensive study about the possibilities to write down constitutional rights for children and youth in the Austrian Constitution (made by the Boltzmann-Institute for Human Rights). This study is already published as a book and was presented in a press conference (April 1999, Graz). The authors make a proposal to anchor 18 articles (representing the spirit of all 41 articles) in the Constitutional Law of Austria.
  In May 1999 the Conference of Ombudspersons for Children and Youth set up a catalogue of demands to the Federal Government. One of the most important demands is the demand for anchoring the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Constitutional Law.
  Right now a committee of the ombudspersons of Austria has talks with all clubs of the members of the National Council about the possibilities to write down the Rights of the Child in the Austrian Constitution.

Referring to the title "NGOs and the Political Will" you see that NGOs can do a lot to influence the political will. But there is still a lot to do.

[claudia] [beruf]

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