In this year’s Human Rights Report of the City of Graz, the Human Rights Advisory Board evaluates the recommendations made in the last report to the City Government and the Municipal Council on E-Governance, domestic violence, political participation of children and young people, the City’s measures against racism and linguistic diversity in the city. The Graz Declaration on Human Rights City of 2001 and the United Nations’ review scheme for economic and social rights are the benchmarks for the following result:
(I) The digital services of the City of Graz are based on human rights principles. Non-discriminatory access is guaranteed by the availability of analogue alternatives (analogue inclusion) and by support services in district centres, senior citizens’ offices, city libraries and the Citizens’ Office.
(II) The recommended measures against domestic violence, the implementation of the Istanbul Convention against gender-based violence, are being implemented by the City of Graz with financial support from the Federal Government together with women’s shelters as part of the project “Stadtteile ohne Partnergewalt (StoP).”
(III) Despite the many reported activities, projects and participation initiatives, the participation of children and young people does not correspond to the recommendation of the Human Rights Advisory Board. In its recommendation, the Advisory Board believes that city politics and city administration must listen to children unconditionally and with an open mind in order to be able to take appropriate measures. In most cases, the possibilities are limited to limited participation in their own everyday life. Independent setting of topics and decision-making power are rare.
(IV) The City’s cultural offerings, social services, health care and services of the Citizens’ Office, elementary and primary education, as well as the areas of integration, information and communication were reviewed with regard to how the authorities deal with the multilingualism of the population. The Human Rights Advisory Board finds an imbalance in availability, access and quality between the urban fields of action considered and the responsible authorities. In particular, the Human Rights Advisory Board misses a systematic approach to the internationality of the City’s population, including students and international workers. It is found that in various departments and in the area of services guaranteed by fundamental rights, dealing with parties is left to the discretion and commitment of individual administrative employees. Individual language and cultural knowledge of employees closes systemic gaps without ensuring that the professional and linguistic qualifications are actually present. Appropriate standards in dealing with parties were not reported, with the exception of the official language requirement in the registry office. For the education sector, reference is made to the state’s Education Directorate, but the guarantee of the right to education is not addressed. On the other hand, the International Language Centre works intensively with the City to promote a culture of multilingualism, the communications department tries to collect specific data in cooperation with the language communities and the culture department makes its offers linguistically accessible to as many people as possible.
The Human Rights Advisory Board therefore recommends that the City of Graz draw up and implement a comprehensive diversity strategy for the areas of municipal services and personnel development. The measures from the areas of culture and communication are pointing the way in this direction.
(V) The Action Programme against Racism 2024 to 2026 was drawn up by the Mayor’s Office in cooperation with the Migrants’ Advisory Council and the Human Rights Advisory Board and was presented to the Municipal Council for approval on 16 January. The Action Programme meets the assessment of the Human Rights Advisory Council because it provides for several measures to further develop Graz’s diversity management.
The Human Rights Advisory Board assesses the implementation of the Graz Declaration of Human Rights as follows:
(1) The orientation of the Municipal Council and the City Government towards human rights can be seen without restriction for the recommendations on E-Government and against domestic violence, and largely for the recommendations on youth participation and work against racism. A very inconsistent picture emerges when it comes to dealing with the heterogeneity and diversity of society and the associated multilingualism. A system derived from the principle of the rule of law cannot be identified.
(2) The requirement to provide information about rights and obligations, especially of young people, can be seen in the selected subject areas. One recommendation specifically addresses the participation of children and young people, where a range of different opportunities for youth activities and youth participation are reported. The extent to which these offers explicitly refer to human rights cannot be assessed in this context.
(3) The participation of corporations and organizations required by the declaration meets the requirements of human rights implementation.
(4) The Human Rights Report fulfils the requirement to identify deficits and promote human rights as guidelines.
(5) Cooperation with international and European institutions takes place within the framework of membership of the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR) and is reflected in the adoption of the fifth action programme for the development of an anti-racist urban society.
The full report in English language is available for free download on the website of the City of Graz.
