A/HRC/20/26/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, visited Austria from 5 to 15 April 2011, at the invitation of the Government. The mission was the first official visit to Austria by an expert appointed by the Human Rights Council. The Independent Expert‟s visit included Vienna, Burgenland, Carinthia and Styria. 2. During her mission, the Independent Expert met with senior officials at the federal, federal provinces (Landers) and municipal levels dealing with all aspects of cultural rights as well as in the areas of education, population statistics, women‟s issues, minority issues, the media, internal and foreign affairs. She also engaged with public institutions working in the field of culture and media, equality and redress. She met UNESCO Austria and interacted with academics, civil society organizations, representatives of minority associations and religious groups. 3. The expert visited a number of community projects and public-private partnership initiatives that facilitate people‟s access to and ability to contribute to cultural life and that promote cultural diversity in Vienna, Graz, Eisenstadt and Klagenfurt. She was able to see multilingual educational institutions and projects of minority associations that promote the use of minority languages and safeguard cultural traditions as living heritage. 4. In the course of the visit, the Independent Expert assessed the realization of the cultural rights of all persons in Austria and the measures adopted by the Government to promote cultural diversity and to foster intercultural as well as inter-religious dialogue. She studied the relevant normative and institutional framework, and looked particularly at the achievements and challenges in the realization of cultural rights of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, migrants, as well as persons with disabilities and those living in relative poverty. 5. The Independent Expert thanks the Government of Austria for the opportunity to examine the situation of cultural rights in the country. She extends her thanks to all stakeholders and interlocutors for their time, information and insights. 6. In the present report, the Independent Expert presents her observations and recommendations in the spirit of fostering further cooperation and with a view to contributing to the efforts to strengthen cultural rights in Austria. II. General background A. The federal administrative framework 7. Austria is a federal republic comprised of nine independent Federal Provinces: Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna. These administrative districts, called “Länder” in German, have some autonomy, including constitutional authority to enact certain legislation and take administrative decisions. Nevertheless, most public affairs fall under the competence of the federal authority: Länder do not have a stand-alone judiciary, have comparatively few actual legislative powers and rely for most of their budget on the federal government. 3