Anti-Discrinination 2. Anti-Discrimination 2.1 National Action Plan for Human Rights Currently, preliminary work is being undertaken to prepare the first National Action Plan for Human Rights of the Federal Government; civil society and the AOB are included in this process. Many of the suggestions pertain to measures to improve equal opportunities and prevent discrimination. AOB builds bridges to civil society On 9 May 2014, an NGO forum with around 70 participants took place at the premises of the AOB. Representatives of the Federal Government provided information to civil society regarding the consultation process associated with the preparation of the National Action Plan (NAP) for Human Rights. Those present were invited to submit suggestions for concrete projects to be included in the NAP and implemented during the current legislative term until 2018. Suggestions regarding equal treatment and anti-discrimination The AOB has set up a communication platform on its website where all information about the NAP for Human Rights as well as all contributions submitted by civil society will be published unabridged. Many suggestions address the topics of equal treatment and anti-discrimination and revisit longstanding recommendations previously made by human rights bodies at both the European and the international level (Council of Europe, UN), as well as suggestions made by the AOB (Annual Report 2012, p. 62) and other national institutions. The fundamental demand is the consolidation and simplification of anti-discrimination legislation, which is currently fragmented and spread out across more than 40 different laws and legal acts. The demand is for the creation of comprehensible legislation and the simplification of equal treatment institutions in order to ensure access to justice for victims of discrimination. Levelling up and simplifying equal treatment legislation The different levels of protection should be eliminated and a levelling-up process should create a uniform, broad protected area for all types and areas of discrimination. These are two issues that are also being pursued by the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection. It is intended to ensure that, in the future, cases, such as the one in early 2015, when according to reports in the media, a homosexual couple was kicked out from a Viennese café (there is no protection against discrimination in such cases; protection against discrimination due to sexual orientation only applies to the workplace), will be relegated to the past. 38

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