Criticism of Raab – Fight against racism: Rauch wants “more speed”

In 2023, 1,302 racist incidents were reported to the anti-racism advice center ZARA. A decrease compared to the year before, when there were 1,479 reports. But you should not be misled by this, the number of unreported cases is much higher, ZARA director Rita Isiba said at a press conference on Wednesday. A central demand of ZARA is the National Action Plan against Racism, which is part of the government program.

“We can’t do this again”
Minister Rauch was asked about this open point in the press foyer after the cabinet meeting. While he emphasized that some projects had been undertaken, he then replied bluntly: “To be clear, we are no longer approaching the National Action Plan.”

Rauch emphasized that he regretted this: “The National Action Plan against Racism and Discrimination is the responsibility of Federal Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP). We would like to see significantly more speed in creation and coordination.” In any case, the green departments “have done their homework and have already taken important measures in their areas of responsibility,” Rauch said.

“Racism is deeply rooted”
When asked about the government’s inertia, ZARA boss Isiba stressed: “If we don’t get support from politics, we at least have the support of private individuals and companies.” We will continue to work to ‘bring Austria closer to a society that is critical to society. of racism.” Isiba concludes that the report shows “how deeply rooted racism still is in many areas of life in Austria.” There is the greatest need to catch up, especially in the education system, in the workplace, in health care and in contacts with the police.

Of the 1,302 reports ZARA documented in 2023, 58 percent were about racism online. But according to the head of the advice centers, Fiorentina Azizi-Hacker, there is only a “smooth transition” from racism on the Internet to attacks in the analogue world. She described an example: A black woman and mother contacted ZARA because she was receiving racist and sexist insults and threats from her online dating contact. After she lost interest in meeting again after the first date, he bombarded her with messages in which he threatened, among other things, to sexually abuse her daughter.

Too few resources
ZARA provided personal advice on reports of racism 1,708 times and took legal measures and other interventions 702 times. However, the need for intensive advice is considerably greater than the capacity of the office. “There will not be as many reports anymore if the ZARA advice center has to close for eight weeks to process the reports,” Azizi-Hacker explains the drop in reports. “To really do something about racism, our resources must be increased. We depend on financing and donations,” said Isiba.

The agency allocated 15.9 percent of cases to ‘public space’, eleven percent to goods and services, 8.4 percent to state authorities and institutions, 4.5 percent to the police, 1.6 percent to politics and the media and 0.4 percent to the working world. Formal complaints were filed in only 4 of the 58 cases of racist police violence. Not much can be said at the moment about the new Investigation and Complaints Bureau investigating allegations of assault on police officers, which started work in January. Even though there are concerns about independence, it is “nevertheless an important first step.”