1. PRESS RELEASE BOOK PRESENTATION
"EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH
AUSTRIAN AND EUROPEAN INITIATIVES AGAINST SOCIAL EXCLUSION"
Request to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child into the Austrian
constitution as well as for an effective law for youth wellbeing (Jugendwohlfahrtsgesetz)
Summery of Results of the Conference held in December 2010 at the Law School in
Vienna/Austria
The chance for equal opportunities for children and young adults in Austria has greatly
diminished since the announcement of budget constraints by the Austrian government at the
end of the European Year against Poverty and Social Exclusion.
Now – during the International Year of Youth - there is the fear of another backlash
concerning the anchoring of the Rights of the Child Convention into the Austrian
Constitution.
Not only that just single provisions will be implemented, but these shall – in the convention
not intended – be placed under legal proviso which foresees a discrimination according to
citizenship favouring the law relating to aliens over the protection of basic rights for children
and young adults.
This is – not only with view to the actual ambitions of Austria to take over a leading role in
the international protection of human rights – sheer unacceptable as specifically the area of
protection of unaccompanied minors and minor asylum seekers, but also generally of
migrants, features enormous deficits.
Barbara Prammer, President of the Austrian National Assembly formulated in her welcome
address to the conference participants the statement: "Human Rights are universal and valid
for all. Each society has to live up to this measurement. And Human Rights are equally
rights and duties. They are indivisible and not negotiable."
Also, Othmar Karas referred in his welcome address, with regard to the European Charter of
Fundamental Rights, to the importance of the rights of the child and requested that not only
all EU member states would incorporate the Convention on the Rights of the Child into
their constitution, but also that the EU as such in its capacity as a legal entity would sign
the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In this sense we request:
1. The already from Austria ratified Rights of the Child Convention 18 years ago shall – a
generation later – finally be fully and unconditionally be incorporated into the Austrian
constitution and all rights materials shall be adapted to this standard.
2. In particular, it is to secure that children and young adults, whenever their interests are
affected, shall have the right to be legally heard, are comprehensively informed and find
competent legal counselling for their support.
3. Moreover, an effective law for youth welfare is required avoiding through clear rules on
competences negative competence conflicts in such delicate areas like the protection from
violence and sexual assaults.

2. 4. Early infantile support and school system are to be reformed taking into consideration
development-psychological findings, in order to increase equal opportunities instead of
inequalities:
 Infant pedagogy as university curriculum
 Decrease in group sizes on all levels of education
 Multilingualism as chance instead of obstacle
 Free access to education concerning first and second education on all levels independent
of nationality, ethnicity and resident permit status
 Low-threshold educational offers for youth with problematic biographies
5. Free health support for the youth independent of insurance status including urgent
psychotherapeutic and psychiatric therapy.
6. Juvenile delinquency shall be heard as a cry for help and fundamental needs of such youth
need to be addressed:
 Relationship offers through follow-up support from the side of probation assistance and
exclusively social pedagogic personnel in correctional institutions for juveniles, whereby
at an intersection at least in a period of transition, support by two parallel institutions shall
to be guaranteed.
 Execution of dis-imprisonment of extremely problematic youth in closed departments of
support institutions in which they can after detainment and after the establishment of a
certain bond of trust during the enforcement be further supported in "open" institutions.
 Sufficient personnel and space for the enforcement of sentences in order to prevent
assaults among inmates.
7. Age identification in asylum granting procedures as well as each form of custody pending
deportation for youth is to be abolished.
8. Children who might have been victims of human trafficking are not to be treated as
delinquents - therefore an area-wide sensitisation of all occupational groups dealing with
victims of child trafficking is indispensable. The welfare of children is to be given priority in
all phases of victim support: starting from recognition at counselling and placements of
victims of child trafficking until clarification of possibilities for residency or repatriation.
9. Basic services (medical and psychological services, education, living arrangements, public
transportation,…) are to be maintained for all children and young adults independent of their
residence permit status as long as they reside in Austria.
UPR of the HR Council on Austria
Responses to Recommendations
AUSTRIA
Review in the Working Group: 26 January 2011 Adoption in the Plenary: 7 June 2011
http://www.upr-info.org/IMG/pdf/recommendations_to_austria_2011.pdf