Preface
Pursuant to Austria’s Federal Constitution, the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) has
independently and impartially monitored Federal, state and local public administration since
1977. Once a year, its members submit a report on its ex-post control activities to the National
Council and the Federal Council outlining the AOB’s work, priorities and main findings during
the past year.
Since 2012, the AOB is also competent for preventive monitoring and assumes these new duties
as National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) jointly with the commissions that it has established.
A separate report gives an account of the first full year of the AOB’s new role to protect and
promote human rights and give reasons for, preventive monitoring and control decisions.
The AOB’s preventive work was already effective in 2013: Deficits were identified and rectified
in a number of cases and measures for improvement were initiated. However, the AOB not only
has a monitoring mandate, it also aims at educating about the importance of human rights,
informing about the latent dangers of a human rights violation and spreading awareness.
Yet these innovations do not mean that the AOB’s traditional tasks of monitoring complaintbased administration have lost importance. The number of citizens approaching the AOB with
their concerns remains high and even increased significantly compared to 2012. The figures
provided will demonstrate the importance of the AOB’s role as an institution ensuring legal
protection.
International co-operation and networking continued and intensified. Time and again,
procedures can be corrected by exchanging experiences with similar institutions and facilities
abroad. This also benefits Austria’s reputation as a country, which carefully monitors and
promotes the observance of human rights.
This report presents the key figures for 2013 in detail in the performance record and outlines
the most important monitoring results of the AOB’s ex-post monitoring, revealing structural
weaknesses which are illustrated with examples. As usual, the structure matches the
responsibilities of the different ministries. Finally the report also offers an overview of the AOB’s
international activities.
We would like to thank the employees of the Austrian Ombudsman Board, who have made
it possible for us to start on a strong basis and for work to continue seamlessly. Our particular
thanks go to Ms Terezija Stoisits and Mr Peter Kostelka, whose term in office as members of
the AOB ended in June 2013, for the many years of commendable work. Last but not least,
the AOB would like to thank the Federal Ministries and other federal, regional and municipal
bodies for their willingness to cooperate this past year.
Gertrude Brinek
Vienna, August 2014
Peter Fichtenbauer
Günther Kräuter