Austria Government

These publications include facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty.  The Notes are updated/revised by the Office of Electronic Information and Publications of the Bureau of Public Affairs as they are received from the Department's regional bureaus and are added to the database of the Department of State website you are now using. ... [Read More]

2004 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Austria

The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status in accordance with the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol, and the Government has established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice, the Government provided protection against refoulement, the return of persons to a country where they feared persecution. The Government granted refugee status or asylum; however, the Government subscribed to a safe country of transit policy, which required asylum seekers who transited a country determined to be "safe" to return to that country to seek refugee status. The Government cooperated with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees and asylum seekers. ... [Read More]

Austria

The Government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas. There were some reports of abuse by police, which involved occasional beatings but mainly involved verbal abuse, threats, and harassment. Foreign observers criticized the strict application of slander laws as detrimental to press reporting. There was some governmental and societal discrimination against members of some nonrecognized religious groups, particularly those considered to be sects. Violence against women was a problem, which the Government took steps to address. Interior Ministry statistics for the year showed a similar number of neo-National Socialist, rightwing extremist, and xenophobic incidents as the previous year. Trafficking in women for prostitution remained a problem, which the Government took steps to combat. Austria was invited by the Community of Democracies' (CD) Convening Group to attend the November 2002 second CD Ministerial Meeting in ... [Read More]

Austria

Aviation Safety Oversight, Criminal Penalties, Special Circumstances, Children's Issues, and Registration / Embassy Location. Other Government Websites First Gov Service Locator ... [Read More]

Austria

Foreign and domestic private enterprises are free to establish, acquire, and dispose of interests in business enterprises, with the exception of railroad infrastructure, some utilities, and a few state monopolies, such as gambling. As the government continues to pursue privatization, it is gradually opening up some of these industries to private investment as well. For example, the Austrian Government implemented legal changes in 1997 and 2001 to allow private radio and private terrestrial TV under a limited number of licenses. The government dismantled the postal monopoly for wire-transmitted voice telephony and infrastructure in 1998. The Austrian electricity market was partially liberalized in February 1999 for bulk purchasers and in October 2001 for consumers. The Austrian gas market was fully liberalized in October 2002. However, by law, federal and provincial governments maintain at least 51% majority shares in all electricity providers. In line with EU regulations, the gover ... [Read More]

Austria

Austria is a multiparty parliamentary democracy in which constitutional power is shared between the popularly elected President and the 183-member Parliament. Citizens choose their President and representatives in periodic, free, and fair multiparty elections. In 1998, President Thomas Klestil of the Austrian People's Party (OVP) was elected to a 6-year term. In parliamentary elections in November 2002, the OVP received a plurality and renewed its right-center coalition with the Freedom Party (FPO). The judiciary is independent.The national police maintain internal security, and the army is responsible for external security. The civilian authorities maintained effective control of the security forces. There were reports that the police committed some human rights abuses.The country's highly developed, market-based economy, with its mix of technologically advanced industry, modern agriculture, and tourism, affords the ... [Read More]

Austria

Forced Religious Conversion There were no reports of forced religious conversion, including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States. Section III. Societal Attitudes Relations among the 13 officially recognized religious societies are generally amicable. Fourteen Christian churches, among them the Roman Catholic Church, various Protestant confessions, and eight Orthodox and old-oriental churches are engaged in a dialog in the framework of the Ecumenical Council of Austrian Churches. The Baptists and the Salvation Army have observer status in the Council. The international Catholic organization "Pro Oriente," which promotes a dialog with the Orthodox churches, also is active in the country. [Read More]

Austria (02/05)

Austria has a well-developed social market economy with a high standard of living in which the government has played an important role. The government nationalized many of the country's largest firms in the early post-war period to protect them from Soviet takeover as war reparations. For many years, the government and its state-owned industries conglomerate played a very important role in the Austrian economy. However, starting in the early 1990s, the group broke apart, state-owned firms started to operate largely as private businesses, and the government wholly or partially privatized many of these firms. Although the government's privatization work in past years has been very successful, it still operates some firms, state monopolies, utilities, and services. The Schuessel government has presented an ambitious privatization program, which it is implementing, and which should further reduce government participation in the economy. Austria enjoys well-developed industry, banking, tran ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G

Cyprus is a destination country for women trafficked from Eastern and Central Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Traffickers who forced women into prostitution continued to fraudulently recruit victims for work as dancers in cabarets and nightclubs on short-term "artiste" visas, for work in pubs and bars on employment visas, or for illegal work on tourist or student visas. There was increasing evidence of Chinese women being trafficked for sexual exploitation in Cyprus. The Government of Cyprus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Cyprus made some progress in its anti-trafficking efforts over the past year. The new police anti-trafficking unit produced successful results and showed vigilance in combating the problem. Government recognition of the problem improve ... [Read More]