Racism Report 2003 - Zara

Page 2 Introduction Racism Report 2003The situation of ZARAAbsolutely nothing has changed - much has changed absolutely.On the one hand, this year more than twice the number of people contacted the ZARA counselling centre for witnessesand victims of racism in comparison to last year.On the other hand every year this counselling centre receives the same subvention from the Municipality ofVienna: a sum which makes our operations possible for exactly six months. The other six months are also notfinanced for 2004, the counselling service is not safeguarded.Last year we thought - and announced - that the counselling centre for witnesses and victims of racism wouldhave to close down for good after three years.This year we must say: ZARA will not give up.It‘s not that the financial situation is any better this year.Rather because ZARA is obviously needed. Full stop.The state of Austria may perhaps not approve of anti-racist work and not support it financially - this has notchanged over the last few years. However, the 600 people who have turned to us for advice confirm the need forZARA.It has become our commitment to continue counselling, taking care of and supporting witnesses and victims ofracism in a reliable, competent and consistent way. We cannot and do not wish to revoke that commitment.With the help of ZARA members, generous donations, individual support and voluntary helpers ZARA should alsobe able to work through the second half of 2004 - without any form of financial security.Please support anti-racism work in Austria by becoming a member of ZARA!With 75 Euros per year YOU are a ZARA member!On the Racism Report 2003An anonymous selection of all the racist attacks and incidents reported to ZARA in 2003 is published in this RacismReport. These case reports give an insight into the character of racism in Austria.The law was a major factor in 2003: an EU deadline for the implementation of an anti-discrimination law passedby... therefore the focus of this report is dedicated to the theme „racism and the law“.The contributions range from a legal philosophical deliberation to an EU-wide comparison and an analysis of theAustrian situation to a description of the current national and international legal framework around racism. (Butfor financial reasons not all of these articles could be translated into English).We also report how ZARA lawyers systematically took to task job and apartment advertisers in a campaign against„no foreigners“ advertisements and - surprisingly - for the first time helped in the application of the relevantAustrian law.Verena Krausneker and Eva M. BachingerZARA / Editorial Team Racism Report 2003For the Racism Report 2003 we would like to indicate positive behaviour and friendly cooperation withcompanies and have marked individual cases which were dealt with in exemplary fashion with a GoodPractice Symbol.