Retirement and nursing homes care, protect them from injury and violence by third parties or structures and safeguard the conditions necessary for humane care. In order for elderly persons in retirement and nursing facilities to be able to fully exercise their rights, the state has first to take certain precautions and set up structures that define human rights as a criterion when assessing the quality of nursing and care (cf. Aronson, P. / Mahler, C. [2016]: “Menschenrechte in Pflegeheimen: Wie Menschenrechte der Altenpflege verankert werden können”, German Institute for Human Rights, p. 1). It must be borne in mind that a care situation can always present temporary or permanent conditions that prevent someone from exercising their rights themselves. Respect for human dignity would become essential Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) affirms that all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Elderly persons in residential care must therefore also be perceived as human beings with individual rights – regardless of their care and help needs. Human rights in the area of long-term care of elderly persons The following rights also apply to the field of geriatric care: the right to life and physical integrity (Article 2 ECHR, Article 6 ICCPR), prohibition against being subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 3 ECHR, Article 7 ICCPR), right to liberty and security in person (Article 5 ECHR, Article 1 Federal Constitutional Law on the Protection of Personal Freedom, Article 9 ICCPR) and the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 ECHR, Article 17 ICCPR). Furthermore, the ICESCR documents the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the “highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” (Article 12) and the right to an “adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing” (Article 11). The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) also contains provisions for the protection of elderly persons in long-term care, e.g. guidelines on removing barriers (Article 9), for self-determination (Article 14, 15, 25) and for the right to independent living and inclusion into the community (Article 19). Furthermore, the principle of freedom from discrimination included in various human rights conventions applies, in particular with regard to access to health care and nursing services and rehabilitation. It is thus clear that, from a human rights perspective, long-term care cannot be reduced to merely providing help with accommodation, eating, hygiene or mobility (“warm, full, clean“). Rights for the protection of and respect for human dignity Even though the principle of respecting and protecting human dignity is explicitly articulated as an objective in most of the Laender laws (with the exception of Upper Austria and Lower Austria), the details in the said laws provide no concrete orientation for those in need of care and their relatives. What is also incompatible with the concept of the universality of human rights is the varying degree of implementation in the Laender laws, covering just a mere part of the legal positions which Austria guaranteed to realise on an international level, be it in UN conventions or recommendations of the Council of Europe. This is explained in extracts as follows: 28