A/HRC/20/26/Add.1 in the fields of social protection and benefits, education, and access to public goods and services including housing. However, the Act does not apply to the provisions and conditions governing the entry of third-country nationals or stateless persons or their residence or to any treatment resulting from the legal status of third-country nationals or stateless persons. In 2006, Austria adopted the Equal Treatment for Persons with Disabilities Act, prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination against persons with disabilities. Although a number of relevant regulations have been adopted, the fragmented legal framework on non-discrimination does not provide a coherent and comprehensive basis for combating discrimination in Austria, as observed by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2008.12 19. The Independent Expert subscribes to this view. She also notes with concern the lack of consideration of human rights as a cross-cutting issue in Austria‟s legislation and the lack of a comprehensive human rights catalogue. B. The national legal framework protecting the rights of minorities 20. The 1867 Basic Law on the General Rights of Nationals, adopted in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, provided for dual sovereignty: the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled over various Slavic groups including Croats, Czechs, Poles, Rusyns, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians, as well as large Italian and Romanian communities. Article 19 of the Basic Law establishes that all ethnic entities of the empire shall enjoy equal rights and have an inviolable right to the preservation of their nationality and language. It stipulates the “equal rights of all existing languages in schools, administration and public life”, and stresses that in countries populated by more than one ethnic entity, members of each ethnic entity should have adequate opportunity to receive education in their own language. Last amended in 1988, the Basic Law has constitutional status. 21. The Republic of Austria emerged in 1918 with the Treaty of St. Germain. The State Treaty of Saint Germain ensures equal treatment and security de jure and de facto to members of racial, religious or linguistic minorities. It sets out the obligation to ensure the use of minority languages before the courts and to provide primary school instruction in minority languages in districts with a sizeable population belonging to a racial, religious or linguistic minority. Moreover, it guarantees an equitable share of public funds to be granted to these minorities for educational, religious and charitable purposes. 13 22. The Austrian Constitution, first enacted in 1920, is an extensive collection of legal provisions which, over the years, have attained constitutional status. The 2000 amendment of the Federal Constitutional Law enshrines the commitment of Austria to protect the rights of minorities in a new Article 8. Through article 8, the Republic subscribes to its linguistic and cultural multiplicity reflected in its indigenous ethnic groups, and guarantees to respect and preserve their existence, language and culture. The article introduces the term “autochthonous” into legal texts for the first time. 23. The 1955 State Treaty of Vienna recognizes the right of Austrian citizens in Carinthia, Burgenland and Styria, as members of the Slovenian and Croatian minorities, to use their own languages in schools, administrative and judicial procedures, and topographical signs.14 12 13 14 6 CERD/C/AUT/CO/17, para. 12. State Treaty of St. German, 1920, arts. 66-68. Austrian State Treaty, 1955, art. 7.