Fundamental Rights Section 3.2 Discrimination on account of nationality or ethnicity 3.2.1 Discriminatory Limitation of Family Allowance for NonAustrian Parents (VA BD/35-JF/05, VA BD/31-JF/06) Two non-Austrian couples filed a complaint with the Ombudsman Board in which they stated that, unlike Austrian citizens, they had been granted family allowance only for a short period of time. In the first case, the father is an Austrian citizen, the mother a Colombian citizen, the couple married 6 years ago and has lived in Austria since then; also their son was born in Austria. In the second case, the mother and the father originated from South Tyrol and are therefore citizens of the European Union who have lived, completed their university studies and worked in Austria. Both children were born in Austria. In both cases, the family allowance was granted only for short periods - from a few months up to three years without explanation. Austrian citizens, however, receive family allowance on a regular basis and without limitation until the child's eighteenth birthday. According to the complainants' view - which was not contested by the Federal Ministry they were requested to submit documents from the competent tax authority several times, on the ground that the complainants are not Austrian citizens and the authority therefore entitled to request the submission of relevant documents, whenever necessary. Quote: 'There is no law that prevents us from doing that.' In 1972, Austria ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). This Convention commits Austria and its authorities 'to prohibit and to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination and to provide for effective remedies against acts of racial discrimination'. The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, enjoying constitutional rank in Austria, prohibits discrimination on the basis of 'race' or national origin. The BVG betreffend das Verbot rassischer Diskriminierung (Federal Constitutional Law Concerning the Prohibition of Racial Discrimination) prohibits all kinds of 'racial' discrimination. Pursuant to the recent case law of the Austrian Constitutional Court this Law prohibits legislation and execution to make differentiations between foreigners on no objective grounds. A difference in treatment of foreigners is only admissible if it is based on objective grounds and not arbitrary (Berka, Art. 7 B-VG (Federal Constitutional Law) in Rill/Schäffer (editors), Bundesverfassungsrecht Kommentar, marginal number 24 with further reference to the case law). Art. 12 of the EC Treaty prohibits any discrimination of EU citizens on the ground of nationality. With regard to welfare law, Art. 3 of Regulation (EEC) number 1408/71 provides that persons resident in the territory of one of the Member States to whom this Regulation ap- 79