International Edition of the Annual Report 2009

Based on the Austrian Federal Constitution, the Austrian Ombudsman Board (Volksanwaltschaft) has independently and impartially controlled federal, regional and local public administration since 1977. Once a year, its members submit a report to the National Council and to the Federal Council outlining the institution's work, priorities, and main findings of the past year.

The International Edition of the Annual Report 2009 is now available in English. It consists of a general section, which outlines the activities of the three members of the Austrian Ombudsman Board. All key data, such as statistics on investigative proceedings and the number of cases, can be found in this section. Section two gives an overview of the international activities of the institution, which covers a broad range from the International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.) to EU twinning projects and bilateral contacts.

Since 2001, the Austrian Ombudsman Board has been putting a particular emphasis on human rights in its Annual Report. Section three of the International Edition of the Annual Report therefore deals with legal problems relating to human rights, which the Austrian Ombudsman Board had to resolve in 2009 when assessing complaints about administrative malfunction and administrative breaches of legal provisions by public authorities.

Both the original report in German and the international edition in English can be downloaded for free.