A new, theme-based report published today by the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) commends the Austrian authorities for having taken steps to further align legislation with requirements of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). The report comes seven years after GREVIO’s initial report on Austria and focuses on progress made to deliver protection, support and justice for women victims of violence.
GREVIO, which monitors the treaty, determines that Austria has reacted well to growing forms of violence – such as online misogynistic hate speech and harassment – with training initiatives and legislation that “continuously expands” victims’ rights in criminal proceedings.
GREVIO praises the Violence Protection Act 2019, by which MARACs – multi-agency risk-assessment conferences – have been re-introduced, and mandatory violence-prevention counselling for domestic violence perpetrators is being implemented.
A prohibition to approach the victim supplements emergency barring and protection orders, but when children are involved, law enforcement agencies do not systematically notify childcare facilities and schools thereof. While improvements had been made, GREVIO considers it of “paramount importance” that schools and other childcare institutions are informed without exception of police barring orders to ensure children’s safety.
The report further points to the need to do more to consider the safety of the non-abusive parent and any children involved in family law proceedings after domestic violence. In Austria, women under a protection order or staying at a women’s shelter with their children may still be obliged by family law courts to enable visitation between their children and the abusive parent. The report calls on Austrian authorities to reinforce training of family law judges and court-appointed experts on the impact of children’s exposure to domestic violence, and on the legal obligation to ensure the safety of women victims of violence and their children in decisions related to custody and visitation rights.
This ties in with the “urgent action” needed for the Austrian authorities to comply with treaty provisions with respect to training judges and public prosecutors, who lack mandatory in-service training for issues related to gender-based violence against women, including sexual violence and the impact of trauma on witness statements.
The report also laments persistently high numbers of women killed in Austria. According to Federal Criminal Police Office statistics, thirty-nine women were murdered in 2022, 36 in 2021, 31 in 2020, and 39 in 2019: three women killed every month on average. The Austrian authorities are “well aware” of this serious issue, the report notes, having completed a large-scale study on femicides between 2010 and 2020, identifying underlying causes. GREVIO stresses that preventing such gender-based killings should “remain a priority” on the government’s agenda.
One underlying cause of sexual violence against women and girls can be traced to children and young people who have easy access to violent online pornography. Such exposure is increasingly linked to a “worrisome decrease in the age of perpetrators” of sexual violence, according to studies evoked in the GREVIO report. Watching and sharing pornography, which often depicts violence against women without being able to contextualize or comprehend what is seen is a phenomenon that GREVIO has been observing in other countries bound by the treaty. The report cites research confirming that violent pornography can have “devastating effects on children’s minds” and a “detrimental impact on their ability to establish healthy and consent-based sexual relations” and recommends targeted awareness-raising activities among parents and children as well as preventive action. Some positive examples exist to address this, for example a counselling programme for young offenders with harmful sexual preferences.
GREVIO findings for the Austrian authorities include the following:
- Develop a long-term comprehensive action plan/strategic policy document giving due importance to all forms of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention;
- Ensure adequate and long-term funding to the various NGOs supporting victims of violence against women;
- Step up their efforts to eradicate prejudice, gender stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes in Austrian society;
- Ensure that domestic violence perpetrator programmes and those for sexual violence perpetrators are widely attended.
