The Austrian NPM is making all possible efforts to not only address
complaints but also to work intensively to develop solutions. Besides
visiting facilities and institutions, it is also occasionally necessary to
contact the legal entities that operate them, the supervisory authorities
and/or the ministries in order to work with them on improvements.
Therefore, the processes, which occur subsequently to the
transmission of commissions’ reports and which are conducted by the
AOB, are not concluded for quite some time; sometimes not until the
following year.
The commissions found points of criticism with regard to the human
rights situation during 312 of their visits. As the commissions
sometimes address multiple criticisms during their visits, the NPM has
made recommendations that will be described in the following.
Monitoring statistics 2015
Criticisms
No criticisms
Still open
294
72
79
5
6
0
Police operations*
13
29
3
Total
312
107
82
Institutions and
facilities
Forced returns
* These include: manifestations, events, assemblies
1.6.
Budget
In 2015, a budget of EUR 1,450,000 was available to remunerate the
heads and members of the commissions, as well as the members of
the Human Rights Advisory Council. Of this amount, around EUR
1,158,000 (2014: EUR 1,148,029) was budgeted for reimbursements and
travel costs for the commission members alone and around EUR
91,000 (2014: EUR 95,000) for the Human Rights Advisory Council.
Around EUR 200,000 was available for workshops for the
commissions and the AOB employees working in the OPCAT sector, as
well as for other activities. The psychological burden and the resilience
under pressure of the commission members is repeatedly challenged
in different settings and situations. Therefore, in collaboration with
experts, the AOB offers commission members supervision and
counselling both in groups and individually to maintain their
psychological hygiene. In 2015, this option was increasingly utilized
and the costs incurred were covered.
Budget cuts that the AOB had to undertake did not affect the NPM. The
number of visits and concomitant monitoring by the commissions was
ensured, both with regard to quality and quantity.
14