The current focus of our work is access to asylum in Austria, taking into consideration relevant development at EU level and international level. At the moment, we implement projects in following areas: Integration of refugee children in education, victims of torture in the Austrian asylum procedure, quality of the Austrian asylum procedure.
Apart from that we investigate the status of persons affected by environmentally induced involuntary migration (details see „environmental migration“).
Press Release - 07/20/2012
Judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court on asylum seekers should prompt significant increase of financial assistance for asylum seekers in Austria, urges the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM).
The seminar (held in German), which takes place on 23 April 2012 in the Wiener Justizpalast (Vienna Palace of Justice), aims at identifying practical problems of extradition cases in criminal proceedings and at showing how to avoid conflicts with asylum procedures.
The judgement of the European Court of Human Rights on 21 January 2011 reinforced that the European asylum system is in need for reform. With roughly 90% of all detentions of migrants and refugees that had irregularly immigrated to the European Union, Greece carries the main burden of immigration to the EU but the responsibility for it lies with all Member States of the European Union.
In the following comment the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights refers to the proposed changes of the Immigration Authorities Act (Fremdenpolizeigesetz) to legal advice and detention (Schubhaft). It particularly criticises the organisation of legal advice which lets arise severe doubts about their independence and therefore can not fulfil the high requirements of Art 6 ECHR.
On 1 December the BIM together with the Association of Austrian Judges, the Austrian League of Human Rights and Amnesty International Austria asked Austrian politicans as well as the presidents of the High Courts to suspend further deportations of asylum-seekers to Greece in response to the request of the European Court of Human Rights and the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur o
The study "Rechtsstellung und rechtliche Behandlung von Umweltflüchtlingen" (Legal Status of Environmental Refugees) on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) was published. The study is co-authored by Manfred Nowak and Margit Ammer of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (together with Gerhard Hafner and Lisa Stadlmayer, Section for International Law and International Relations/Law Faculty at the University of Vienna) and analyses the legal treatment of environmental refugees.