The members of the AOB take stock Award of twinning project for Macedonia care. Utilising its experience from ex-post control and relying on the reports of its commissions, the AOB is participating in two research projects, whose objective it is to strengthen preventive strategies against possible human rights violations during institutional care (nursing homes, psychiatric institutions, institutions and facilities for persons with disabilities). It is very important for me that the investigations undertaken by the AOB make the objective reality of the lives of persons who are socially disadvantaged in many ways the topic of political debate, and that processes that exclude or marginalise people and undesirable social developments are identified as such and changed. From my perspective, building awareness is the pivot and hub of how the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can be implemented. Inclusion can only be put into practice, when the Federal Government and the Laender create coordinated framework conditions to make it possible for people with disabilities to belong to society from the very outset and to receive support services underpinned by legal claims in various life circumstances. Only when disability is understood not as a person’s deficit but as the result of societal barriers can sustainable processes leading to true inclusion and participation of people with disabilities be successful. The situation is similar with regard to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. If the Federal Government is willing to accept that around 800 unaccompanied minor refugees are “warehoused” in federal initial reception centres without any socio-pedagogical care, without providing proper placement in child and youth welfare facilities and without fulfilling caretaking obligations, this is not only a violation of their obligations under international law but also against Austrian (constitutional) law. Until 2011, protection of child welfare as a priority in a general legal context was always a basic principle of child law. Once it was anchored on a constitutional level, it became a review criterion and an interpretative guideline for the consideration of the interests of all children and adolescents (see pp. 54 et seq.). I hope - no, I expect – that in the next year I will be able to report to Parliament that minor refugees, who often arrive here in an extremely traumatised state, are being treated differently. 14

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