| This Toolkit is released as an online beta version. Teachers are invited to share their experiences in using this Toolkit by emailing one of the project contacts. |
Austria
The Austrian Ombudsman Board independently monitors Austria’s entire public administration by order of the Federal Constitution. It follows up citizens’ complaints, checks the legality of decisions by authorities and examines possible cases of maladministration in the public administration. All people living in Austria can turn to the Ombudsman Board with their concerns. They do not have to be Austrian citizens or of full age. Enterprises, businesses, and societies can also lodge complaints about the public administration with the Ombudsman Board. Complaints are free of charge. The Ombudsman Board controls the direct and indirect federal administration. Seven of Austria’s nine provinces have also mandated the Ombudsman Board with monitoring the entire provincial and municipal administration. In the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, there are provincial ombudspersons appointed by the provincial parliaments.
Human rights are at the core of the Ombudsman Board’s activities. The Ombudsman Board cases touch upon the fundamental constitutional requirements of the Federal Constitution, complaints also concern the principle of equality, data protection and the right to respect for private and family life. Different aspects of discrimination, such as discrimination based on religion, nationality or ethnicity, are covered as well | Volksanwaltschaft 1015 Vienna, Postfach 20
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The mandate of the HRAB is the monitoring and observation of all activities of the security services of Austria, the authorities under the Minister of the Interior and all bodies with power of direct command and compulsion to ensure compliance to the human rights standards.
| Der Menschenrechtsbeirat (MRB) [Human Rights Advisory Board (HRAB)]; Mag. Walter Witzerdorfer |
Women and equality issues. | Gleichbehandlungskommission (GBK) [Equal Treatment Commission (ETC)];Federal Chancellery –Bundeskanzleramt Ballhausplatz 2 1014 Vienna
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Matters of discrimination in employment and occupation on the grounds of sex, ethnicity, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation.
| Gleichbehandlungsanwaltschaft (GAW) [Ombud for Equal Treatment (OET)] Gleichbehandlungsanwaltschaft Email: gaw@bka.gv.at |
The government authority charged with data protection. | Datenschutzkommission (DSK) [Data Protection Commission] (DPC); Geschäftsstelle der Datenschutzkommission Email: dsk@dsk.gv.at
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The Ministry of Education in Austria (BMUKK) and its association erinnern.at, the Ministry’s agency, work for the promotion of Holocaust Education and remembrance and provide extensive support and networking opportunities for Austrian educators. | Erinnern.at Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust: Gedächtnis und Gegenwart
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Centropa is an interactive database of 25,000 digitized images of Jewish history. The first oral history project combines old family history pictures with the stories that go with them and provides online study guides. | Address: Centropa Website: http://www.at.centropa.org/
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The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust-Studies is dedicated to research, documentation and information on issues regarding Anti-Semitism, racism and the Holocaust. It promotes public awareness through teaching/learning forums, publications and varying exhibits and is committed to the struggle against indifference when crimes against humanity are committed. | Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust-Studies (VWI) Address: Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust-Studies (VWI) Website: www.vwi.ac.at/ |
During World War II, the Schloss Hartheim Castle was used to gas and lethally inject tens of thousands of persons with physical and mental disabilities as part of the T-4 Euthanasia Program and to gas thousands of prisoners from the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps. The Hartheim Castle is now an educational center and memorial. | Stiftung Lern- und Gedenkort Schloss-Hartheim Website: www.schloss-hartheim.at/
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European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is an advisory body of the European Union. It was established in 2007 by a legal act of the European Union and is based in Vienna, Austria. The FRA helps to ensure that fundamental rights of people living in the EU are protected. It does this by collecting evidence about the situation of fundamental rights across the European Union and providing advice, based on evidence, about how to improve the situation. The FRA also informs people about their fundamental rights. In doing so, it helps to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European Union.
| European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) Schwarzenbergplatz 1 Website: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/home/home_en.htm
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European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy The ETC has been set up as a non-profit association and started its work in October 1999. Its premises in Graz have been opened on the occasion of the Human Rights Day on the 10th of December 2000 (Inauguration). Its main aim is to conduct research and training programs in the fields of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in close co-operation with the University of Graz. Special emphasis is put on training programs for civil servants, the police, army, as well as for members of international organizations and NGOs in Austria and abroad. New innovative teaching methods are applied in "train the trainers programs". | European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Elisabethstraße 50B
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Mauthausen Memorial Since the sixties it was worked on the collation of the sources about the concentration camp history as well as about the history of the memorial in the archive of the KZ-memorial Mauthasuen and to allocate it for researches.
| Mauthausen Memorial Minoritenplatz 9
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Research work at the BIM deals with a broad range of human rights relevant topics. Based on its work since 1993 and in light of upcoming developments within the international human rights discourse the BIM focuses its expertise on the following areas: Human Dignity and Public Security Additionally, the challenges of information society emerge as a new thematic area. Besides the topic-wise structured focuses current human rights questions at international, European and national level are on the institute's research agenda, specifically dealt with in events and publication projects.
| Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) Freyung 6 (Schottenhof)
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With 56 States from Europe, Central Asia and North America, the OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization. It offers a forum for political negotiations and decision-making in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation, and puts the political will of its participating States into practice through its unique network of field missions. The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that encompasses politico-military, economic and environmental, and human aspects. It therefore addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities.
| Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Wallnerstrasse 6
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GEDENKDIENST is a politically independent organisation, without religious denomination, which deals with the causes and aftermaths of the National Socialism and its crimes. Since 1992 Gedenksdienst sends volunteers to countries, where Nazis and their co-operators commited crimes or where survivors live. | Verein Gedenkdienst Margaretenstr. 166
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The Austrian Ombudsman Board The Ombudsman Board has been independently monitoring Austria’s entire public administration since 1977 by order of the Federal Constitution. It checks the legality of decisions by authorities and examines possible cases of maladministration. | Austrian Ombudsman Board Singerstrasse 17 |
