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Austria

A gg. Bundesasylamt (A. v. Federal Asylum Agency) [C16 427.465-1/2012]

The minor applicant, a member of the Hazara ethnic group, illegally immigrated to Austria with her parents and four minor siblings from Afghanistan when she was approximately nine years old. The Federal Asylum Agency of Austria (“FAAA”) denied her and her family’s petitions for asylum. The Asylum Court reversed the denial, finding that the FAAA erred in summarily denying asylum based on the applicant’s statements without considering outside credible reports or sources relevant to the applicant’s asylum claim.

Antrag an die Bundes-Gleichbehandlungskommission (Petition to Equal Treatment Commission) B-GBK I/178/16

After a restructuring of the Austrian Armed Forces, the petitioner lost her position, which was instead awarded to an older male with comparable experience but without the petitioner’s  special training. Representatives from the Austrian Armed Forces (“AAF”) claimed that for reasons of economy, efficiency, and expediency, the reorganization sought to retain employees who were above age 50 and with presumably the shortest period of service remaining.

ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz (ASchG) (Occupational Health and Safety Act)

The legislation generally serves to protect of all male and female employees. Specifically targeting the protection of women, Article 6(4) states that female employees shall not perform work which, by its very nature,  may hold specific dangers for women or alternatively, women may only perform such work with certain restrictions or measures suitable to prevent such risks. The Federal Ministry of Labor shall specify those works in a separate regulation (Article 18 no. 2).

ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz (ASchG) 1995 (Occupational Health and Safety Act)

The legislation generally serves to protect all male and female employees. Specifically targeting the protection of women, Article 6(4) states that female employees shall not perform work that, by its very nature,  may hold specific dangers for women. Alternatively, women may only perform such work with certain restrictions or measures that prevent such risks. The Federal Ministry of Labor shall specify those works in a separate regulation (Article 18 no. 2).

Bundes-Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (B-GlBG) (Federal Equality Act)

The Federal Equality Act aims at creating equality throughout various service agreements (see Section 1) the Federal Government might have with individuals. The main body no. 1 (1. Hauptstück) focuses on the equal treatment of men and women (Section 3). Section 7(2) states that job advertisements should be written in such a way that they equally refer to both men and women and do not contain details that could lead to the conclusion that the advertisement is only for one gender.

Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz (B-VG) (Federal Constitutional Act)

Article 7(1) states that all citizens are equal before the law and prohibits sex-based privileges (among other factors). Article 7(2) states that the federal government and all federal  states and municipalities affirm actual equality between women and men. It further stresses that measures to achieve factual equality between women and men are legal. Regarding job titles or academic titles, Article 7(3) requires that the gendered nouns in those titles reflect the gender of the respective holder are in accordance with law.

Ferenc D. v. People

The defendant was convicted of trafficking in persons for the purpose of prostitution after the lower court found that he lured the victims from Hungary into Austria under the false pretext that they could work as cleaners in an Austrian Hotel and then threatened them with injury or death to force them to work as prostitutes. The Austrian Supreme Court upheld the conviction on appeal. The Regional Court of Vienna’s decision from May 25, 2011 [021 Hv 8/11i-48] was not available at the time of publication.

Frau A gg. Herrn B (Ms. A v. Mr. B) [GBK I/408/12]

In this case, the applicant brought an action against the instructor in a vocational course for making, among other things, sexually crude comments to or in the presence of the applicant and incessantly harassing her. Austria’s Equal Treatment Commission (the “Commission”) concluded that this amounted to sexual harassment in violation of Section 6 para. 1 no. 4 of the Federal Equal Treatment Act (Bundesgleichbehandlungsgesetz).

G 16/2013-16, G 44/2013-14

The local court denied the petitioner’s motion to certify the approval of her female partner to conduct in vitro fertilization with a third person’s semen. The regional court denied the appeal. It held that the wording of the Austrian Reproductive Medicine Act (FMedG) aims to exclude same-sex parenthood. The Supreme Court decided to bring this question to the attention of the Austrian Constitutional Court. The Austrian Constitutional Court decided that certain sections of the FMedG were unconstitutional.

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