In January, Austria’s human rights record was assessed under the UN Universal Periodic
Review (UPR). The government accepted 131 of the 161 recommendations received and
committed to implement them in consultation with civil society.
In November, following consultations with civil society, Austria adopted a law establishing
a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) within the Ombudsman’s Board, as required under
the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. There were concerns among
civil society organizations about the full independence of the NPM.
Amendments to the Security Police Law allowing police surveillance of individuals
without judicial control were pending adoption at the end of the year.
Austria failed to introduce the crime of torture into its criminal code despite repeated
recommendations by the UN Committee against Torture.
Gambian citizen Bakary J., who was tortured by four police officers in 2006 following
an unsuccessful deportation, had still not received reparation and was at risk of
deportation. His complaint before the European Court of Human Rights was still pending.
In January, the police officer who in February 2009 injured US citizen Mike B., an
African-American teacher, during a plain-clothes police operation in Vienna, was sentenced
to a fine for grievous bodily harm by the Vienna Regional Criminal Court. In September,
the fine was reduced by the Austrian Supreme Court.
In June, the Vienna Regional Criminal Court sentenced three individuals respectively
to life, 19 and 16 years’ imprisonment for the killing of Chechen refugee Umar Israilov
on 13 January 2009. In March, the Independent Administrative Tribunal in Vienna rejected
a complaint alleging that the police had failed to provide the victim with protection.
Complaints against this decision were pending before the Constitutional Court and
the Administrative Court.
Reports of racially motivated police misconduct towards foreign nationals and ethnic
minorities continued. Structural shortcomings within the criminal justice system when
responding to discrimination, including the lack of a comprehensive data collection
system that would make it possible to record and evaluate these incidents, were
not addressed.
Although the government did not officially suspend transfers of asylum-seekers to
Greece under the Dublin II Regulation, no such transfers took place following the
verdict of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (see Belgium and Greece entries).
In July, an amendment to the Austrian Aliens Law came into force that placed foreign
children aged 16 to 18 at higher risk of detention pending deportation.
Following the death in July 2010 of Reza H. while in police detention in Vienna, the
Ministry of Interior carried out an internal evaluation. Reza H., an Afghan asylum-seeker
who had alleged that he was 16 years old, died from injuries sustained following a
suicide attempt some months earlier. The Ministry subsequently adopted measures to
improve the information exchange between asylum and foreign police authorities. Inquiries
by the Ombudsman’s Board were still pending at the end of the year.
