We focus on the right not to live in poverty. CEHRI aims to show that poverty is linked to breaches of fundamental rights on an individual and structural level. As expressed by the United Nations, poverty is both a cause and consequence of human rights violations. Those living in poverty are often deprived of the most essential rights, such as the right to health, non-discrimination, or education.

However, despite poverty permeating every aspect of an individual’s existence and being a decisive factor in one’s ability to exercise their inherent right to self-determination, it is an injustice that continues to be ignored by governments throughout the world. 

Austria is ranked in the top 25 richest countries in the world, yet over 200,000 people experience poverty and social exclusion.Furthermore, national practices in Austria maintain structures which make it almost impossible for victims to access justice, be it via the criminal law, civil law, or administrative law avenues, for past harms that can be directly linked to the poverty they now face. 

Aware that poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, CEHRI adopts a holistic approach in its examination of contextual factors and root causes of poverty and supports victims in their attempts to obtain recognition for past injustices that continue to adversely impact their lives today.

Current initiatives

Austrian Children’s Homes:

Already upon CEHRI’s foundation, we started exploring avenues to supporting individuals who have been victims of systematic historic child abuse in Austria. To date, many of these have not been able to access justice or have their victim status recognised in the law, inter alia, resulting in persistent situations of poverty and/or social marginalisation.

CEHRI has identified a number of pilot cases and is supporting these individuals, partly by offering legal support in domestic proceedings, partly before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). 

Our action questions the existing legal situation and aims to reformthe systemicobstacles currently facing victims of historic child abuse in order to duly and indiscriminately upholdtheir right to access justice. Out strategic litigation efforts to support victims of historic child abuse have achieved the admission of a pilot case to the Austrian Federal Administrative Court (VwGH) in 2022. In the respective complaint, we asserted the violation of the victim’s fundamental rights. In the meantime, we received the VwGH affirmative decision on the survivor’s attempt to secure financial redress for crimes suffered and to denounce arbitrariness on the part of the authorities and court experts. As a next step, the administrative court conducted the proceedings anew (based on the complaint filed at that time and in mandatory compliance with the legal opinion of the VwGH). 

The guiding principle emanating from the VwGH judgment is that the causal link between the long-term consequences of the abuse may not be negated merely by the addition of further negative factors, a finding that will positively impact the pursuit of justice for other victims of abuse in children’s homes.