Hundreds of thousands of refugees are stuck in limbo. They cannot go home because of war and persecution. Some end up in refugee camps that are unsafe and located near conflict areas for months, even years at a time. Others live in situations that leave them vulnerable, exposed to abuse or unable to access fundamental human rights. For some of these refugees, the only hope is to be accepted for resettlement by another country that will give them a chance to restart their lives in safety.
RAXEN is the acronym for Racism and Xenophobia Network. Network partners – so called Focal Points – are located in all EU Member States and they are working on behalf of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) aiming to continue the activities of its predecessor organization the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). The information collected on racism and xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and related intolerances are incorporated into the reports published by the Fundamental Rights Agency.
Since the establishment of the network in 2000, BIM has been its partner organization. For three years BIM has been working with ZARA (Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeit), an organization which seeks to tackle all forms of racism and promotes a racism-free society in Austria.
Reports and studies
The Austrian RAXEN Focal Point provides regular reports and studies to the Fundamental Rights Agency concerning the situation in Austria. We can only present the public with information and data on Austria after the Fundamental Rights Agency has processed the information provided by all 27 Focal Points.
Team
Supervisor: Director of RAXEN Focal Point: Barbara Liegl
Staff: Marta Hodasz, Katrin Wladasch, Margit Ammer
Status: Since July 2010
More information on the RAXEN Focal Point Austria is available on
http://www.univie.ac.at/bim/focalpoint/
The history and activities of the RAXEN Focal Point from 2000-2008 are available on this website. Please take note that the website is currently not updated.
Legal experts of various anti-discrimination bodies and NGOs (including the Ombud for Equal Treatment, ZARA, the Litigation Association and the BIM) meet in Vienna once a month to discuss current legal issues and practices as well as cases that are heard by the courts or the Equal Treatment Commission.
The dialog with NGOs has taken place three times since the implementation of the EU Anti-Discrimination Directives in 2004, which clearly ask for the encouragement of such a dialog.
The Litigation Association was founded by the anti-racism NGO ZARA, BIZEPS – Independent Living Centre and the Homosexual Initiative (HOSI) Vienna in 2004. The BIM Research Association joined the organization in the spring of 2005. The Litigation Association is an umbrella NGO with 15 member organisations combating discrimination based on different grounds and in different areas.