ECRI Report,(fifth monitoring cycle). Published on 13 October 2015
Country
Austria
Year
Type of publication
Geographical coverage
National
Area/location of interest
Type of Institution
Council of Europe body
Institution
Main Thematic Focus
Racism & xenophobia Discrimination Hate crime
Target Population
Muslims Migrants People with migrant background
Key findings
The Austrian Police reports on hate crime referring to the statistics in the report on the Protection of the Constitution. In 2013, 574 acts committed with bias motivations were recorded (2012:519). 10.6% of these were classified as racist motivations were recorded (2012: 519). 10.6% of these were classified as racist and xenophobic (2012: 11.4%), 6.5% as anti-Semitic (2012: 5.2%), 2.1% as Islampohobic (2012: 0.8%), and 64.6% as right-wing extremist (2012: 56.4%).
Experts and civil society consider that hate speech is generally under-reported.
The Service for the Protection of the Constitution (SPC) reports that a new generation of right wing extremist organisations has appeared, which present racist views through ‘more diplomatic propaganda’ and aim at recruitment young people to a large extent from universities and student fraternities (Burschenschaften).
Racism on the internet and social media is on the rise. In 2013 the number of cases denounced on a police website for reporting Nazi activities rose to 1900 .
Methodology (Qualitative/Quantitative and exact type used, questionnaires etc)
The working methods for the preparation of the reports involve documentary analyses, a visit to the country concerned, and then a confidential dialogue with the national authorities.
Sample details and representativeness
ECRI’s reports are analyses based on a great deal of information gathered from a wide variety of sources.