{ Adopted on: 10 Sep 1919 }
{ ICL Document Status: 10 Sep 1919 }

 
Article 1 - 61
{...}
 

Section V  Protection of Minorities

 
Article 62  [Fundamental Law]
Austria undertakes that the stipulations contained in this Section shall be recognized as fundamental laws, and that no law, regulation, or official action shall conflict or interfere with these stipulations, nor shall any law, regulation, or official action prevail over them.
 
Article 63  [No Discrimination, Religion]
(1) Austria undertakes to assure full and complete protection of life and liberty to all inhabitants of Austria without distinction of birth, nationality, language, race, or religion.
(2) All inhabitants of Austria shall be entitled to the free exercise, whether public or private, of any creed, religion, or belief, whose practices are not inconsistent with public order or public morals.
 
Article 64  [Citizenship by Residence]
Austria admits and declares to be Austrian nationals ipso facto and without the requirement of any formality all persons possessing at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty rights of citizenship within Austrian territory who are not nationals of any other State.
 
Article 65  [Citzenship by Birth]
All persons born in Austrian territory who are not born nationals of another State shall ipso facto become Austrian nationals.
 
Article 66  [Citizen Equality, Religion, Language]
(1) All Austrian nationals shall be equal before the law and shall enjoy the same civil and political rights without distinction as to race, language, or religion.
(2) Differences of religion, creed, or confession shall not prejudice any Austrian national in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, as for instance admission to public employments, functions, and honors, or the exercise of professions and industries.
(3) No restriction shall be imposed on the free use by any Austrian national of any language in private intercourse in commerce, in religion, in the press, or in publications of any kind, or at public meetings.
(4) Notwithstanding any establishment by the Austrian Government of an official language, adequate facilities shall be given to Austrian nationals of non-German speech for the use of their language, either orally or in writing, before the courts.
 
Article 67  [Minority Protection]
Austrian nationals who belong to racial, religious, or linguistic minorities shall enjoy the same treatment and security in law and in fact as the other Austrian nationals.  In particular they shall have an equal right to establish, manage, and control at their own expense charitable, religious, and social institutions, schools, and other educational establishments, with the right to use their own language and to exercise their religion freely therein.
 
Article 68  [Public Education]
(1) Austria will provide in the public educational system in towns and districts in which a considerable proportion of Austrian nationals of non-German speech are resident adequate facilities for ensuring that in the primary schools the instruction shall be given to the children of such Austrian nationals through the medium of their own language.  This provision shall not prevent the Austrian Government from making the teaching of the German language obligatory in the said schools.
(2) In towns and districts where there is a considerable proportion of Austrian nationals belonging to racial, religious, or linguistic minorities, these minorities shall be assured an equitable share in the enjoyment and application of the sums which may be provided out of public funds under the State, municipal, or other budgets for educational, religious, or charitable purposes.
 
Article 69  [Supervision]
(1) Austria agrees that the stipulations in the foregoing Articles of this Section, so far as they affect persons belonging to racial, religious, or linguistic minorities, constitute obligations of international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations.  They shall not be modified without the assent of a majority of the Council of the League of Nations.  The Allied and Associated Powers represented on the Council severally agree not to withhold their assent from any modification in these Articles which is in due form assented to by a majority of the Council of the League of Nations.
(2) Austria agrees that any Member of the Council of the League of Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction, or any danger of infraction, of any of these obligations, and that the Council may thereupon take such action and give such direction as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances.
(3) Austria further agrees that any difference of opinion as to questions of law or fact arising out of these Articles between the Austrian Government and any one of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers or any other Power, a Member of the Council of the League of Nations shall be held to be a dispute of an international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.  The Austrian Government hereby consents that any such dispute shall, if the other party thereto demands, be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice.  The decision of the Permanent Court shall be final and shall have the same force and effect as an award under Article 13 of the Covenant.

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For methodology see: Comparing Constitutions and International Constitutional Law.
© 1994 - 27.6.2020 / For corrections please contact A. Tschentscher.