“Narrative created” – Amnesty: Freedom of Pressing in Austria threatened

In this country, the increasing threat of freedom of expression would have become particularly visible in the dissolution of the Palestine protest camp at the University of Vienna and in the “criminalization” of the climate movement activists, as Amnesty Austria Managing Director SHORA Hashemi emphasized. Politicians “have increasingly created a story” in which protests are shown “as a criminal”.

The use of such “primary prison sentences” in administrative criminal law for activists without a previous hearing is also negative. In any case, such prison conditions must be rejected from the point of view of human rights, says Hashemi.

“Legal status quo must be stored”
With regard to civil disobedience, which, according to Hashemi, is “covered by the freedom of the meeting” and in which, in her opinion, most actions of the climate movement would fall, Amnesty requires an urgent procedure with the possibility of being able to go against assemblage bans.

First of all, given the difficult situation, it is also about “the preservation and maintaining the status quo completely”. Even this is threatened. Especially on the Palestinian demand and the handling of the climate movement, it would have been shown against protests because of “social and political pressure”.

The anti -social Austria?
The human rights organization also locates serious defects in Austrian social assistance. In a report last year it was established that the Basic Social Welfare Act “was clearly contrary to human rights” in its current form.

It would be important to switch to minimum percentages and the departure of high rates. The government must be designed by the government “in any case in accordance with human rights”. Moreover, there must be no “artificial differences between different population groups,” Hashemi emphasized.

Amnesty sees the government project of a national action plan against violence against women. Especially because of the high number of femicides (27 in 2024), such a plan is a “long -term wish” of the NGO. “It’s about working together better to prevent femalitis. That is a very important factor,” said Hashemi. The human rights organization also evaluates the violent outpatient clinics that were still set up under the previous federal government, but also requires a further expansion.

Criticism of the police
Hashemi sees catching up with the labeling of police officers. Here Austria would be “one of the last lights” in a European comparison. In particular, the NGO asks for an “anonymous number”, which must be clearly visible on the uniform and should above all serve to determine individual guilt or innocence in the course of an investigation.

It is important to point out that this is “not a hostile action against the police”, rather officials can also be helped in the case of unjust allegations. A clear assignment is often difficult, especially because of the often poorly visible videos for mobile phones, and therefore it would not be involved “to kiss”.