"Despite budget deficits and austerity measures, the promotion and further development of human rights must not be pushed to the margins of the political agenda," says Ombudsman Bernhard Achitz on the occasion of International Human Rights Day (10 December). This year's NGO Forum organised by the Austrian Ombudsman Board focused on impending financial cuts that threaten to impact the rights of women and people with disabilities. "Representatives of civil society also pointed out the restrictions on the fundamental right to health. Women, people with disabilities and migrants reported discrimination in the healthcare system, and those who belong to two or three of these groups are often discriminated against twice or three times over," said Achitz.
Some specific examples were given: It is sometimes particularly difficult for people with disabilities to get a (specialist) doctor's appointment, for example because doctors do not want to treat people with mental illnesses or mental impairments. It is particularly difficult for people who rely on the support of sign language interpreters or other forms of assisted communication to find an appointment when both the doctor and the interpreter have time.Women are not only discriminated against when it comes to accessing medical services, but also in research, where drugs are only tested on male test subjects, for example. Pain expressed by women is also taken less seriously.
Cuts in labour market funding threaten women and the chronically mentally ill
It is also known that people with higher incomes and higher educational qualifications live longer and healthier lives. "Savings in labour market promotion and in the supported labour market and socio-economic enterprises therefore not only increase the risk of poverty, but also endanger health. And here too, women and people with chronic mental illnesses will be hit particularly hard," warns Achitz.
Even at the start of their careers, women earn less than men with the same level of education. This continues throughout their careers, exacerbated by motherhood, and culminates in the gender pension gap. Women of pensionable age living alone are still at the highest risk of poverty in Austria after single parents and families with many children.
"There is no human rights policy without social policy. Non-discriminatory access to social systems, health services, public services and infrastructure would be crucial for a genuine gender equality policy," says Ombudsman Achitz.
Poor data situation
"Good political decisions require better data," says Achitz. Both women and people with disabilities are not correctly recorded statistically, NGO representatives reported. For example, household income is the basis for many statistics - but how this is distributed between women and men is not recorded. Or who pays for the children in the household, for example in patchwork family households. People with disabilities are often not taken into account at all, as data is only collected from households, but not from people who - despite a theoretical commitment to de-institutionalisation - still live in institutions.
Basic social rights do not have constitutional status in Austria
Austria has not yet enshrined any basic social rights such as the right to an adequate standard of living or healthcare in its constitution - an exception in the EU. While basic human rights and civil liberties are protected in the Austrian constitution, fundamental social rights have so far only applied on the basis of simple laws that can be changed more easily, e.g. in the area of minimum income and healthcare. As a result, social benefits do not have the same constitutional stability as civil liberties.
The Austrian Ombudsman Board and various NGOs are therefore pushing for basic social rights to be enshrined in the constitution. The Ombudsman Board has dedicated the NGO Forum 2022 to this topic. You can find the conference proceedings here: https://volksanwaltschaft.gv.at/berichte/ngo-forum-tagungsbaende/
"Women, people with disabilities and migrants reported discrimination in the healthcare system, and those who belong to two or three of these groups are often discriminated against twice or three times over," says Ombudsman Bernhard Achitz.