Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief

In 2001 the Austrian government contributed a total of €3.2m for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief throughout the world: help for Afghan refugees; earthquakes in El Salvador and India; flooding in Poland, Hungary and Ukraine; frost in Mongolia; drought in Central America; refugees in South Eastern Europe; victims of illegal trafficking in women and girls; and disaster aid within the framework of various international organisations. Some projects of the Austrian Development Cooperation were also dedicated to disaster relief (€145,346 for victims of the earthquake in India and €177,090 for reconstruction in Burundi). In addition, mine-action programmes of the ICRC and UN-OCHA were supported with €444,211. These actions by the Federal Government were supplemented by additional contributions from Austrian regional and local authorities, NGOs and individuals. Austria also contributed around 2.6 per cent of the €523m budget of the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), which provides global support for aid projects by national and international humanitarian organisations.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) with 91 member states is the leading international institution dealing with questions of migration. Its steadily growing membership reflects the increasing significance of migration issues within international politics. The meetings of the IOM Council will therefore in future also serve as a forum for the political dialogue on global migration questions. In 2001 Austria contributed €278,463 for the administrative and €276,735 for the operative budgets.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), consisting of 25 Swiss citizens, is an independent humanitarian organisation with its own statute. Its role in times of war is regulated by the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the two additional protocols of 1977. A conference of the signatories of the fourth convention was held in Geneva on 5 December to consider the application of humanitarian international law in the occupied areas of Palestine, including East Jerusalem. This was the first conference to discuss the upholding of the law in a specific humanitarian crisis. In accordance with its policy of deescalation in the Middle East, Austria pressed for a balanced text stressing the humanitarian goals of the Geneva Convention. Austria contributed €422,956 to the ICRC's general budget for 2001.