Overview of the National Preventive Mechanism
1.3
Monitoring and control visits in numbers
The commissions conducted 448 visits throughout Austria in 2020, of which
96% were in institutions and facilities, and 4% at police operations. The
majority of the visits were unannounced. There was advance notification in
18% of the cases. The monitoring visits lasted three hours on average.
Monitoring and control activities of the commissions in 2020
(absolute figures)
Peventive human rights monitoring
448
Monitoring of
institutions and facilities
431
Observations of
police operations*
17
* these include: forced returns, demonstrations, assemblies
431 monitoring visits in
institutions and facilities
Of the total 431 visits in institutions and facilities, the vast majority were
in so called “less traditional places of detention”. These include retirement
and nursing homes, child and youth welfare facilities as well as institutions
for persons with disabilities. With 109 visits, retirement and nursing homes
were visited most frequently. This is attributable to the fact that this type of
institution accounts for the majority of the institutions to be monitored by the
NPM. There were 93 visits in institutions for persons with disabilities.
Many follow-up visits
In line with the monitoring practice exercised to date, many facilities were
visited several times in the reporting year. For this reason, the total number
of visits made is not equal to the number of institutions visited. Follow-up
visits serve to determine whether detected deficits have been rectified or
improvements made. Correctional institutions and police detention centres,
in particular, are monitored several times a year.
Observations of
17 police operations
Furthermore, 17 police operations were observed by the commissions in the
reporting year. The reasons for monitoring in these cases were, in particular,
forced returns, demonstrations, major police operations, raids and highsecurity football games.
14 round-table
meetings
In addition to this monitoring and control work, the commissions held 14
round-table meetings with institutions and senior administrative departments.
15