Declaration

Declaration:

Torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment, politically motivated revocation of parental custody, forced adoption and transfer of guardianship through torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment and sexual abuse accepted by the government in the Republic of Austria

In the Republic of Austria there is a shortage of independent, impartial psychologists, physicians, lawyers and psychotherapists who recognise torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment, and who protect victims and their relations from political, legal and psychiatric persecution.

It is presently impossible to investigate and expose torture, inhuman,cruel and degrading treatment, politically motivated revocation of child custody, and forced adoption/-transfer of guardianship through torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment and government support of sexual abuse. 

Attempts at exposure result in further mental abuse and torture.

The systematic persecution that has been initiated by the Austrian government utilises all methods of abuse and torture hitherto known,and many new methods. It is both directly and indirectly aimed at human consciousness. It is intended to eliminate faith, and it thus violates the fundamental rights to freedom of thought and religion.

Those concerned in the class action complaint in re torture are a group of torture victims whom the state has not yet been able to bring under its control, but who have already been/continue to be persecuted,tormented, sanctioned, subjected to custodial guardianship, subjected to psychiatric treatment, fined and sentenced to compulsory treatment to dissuade them from their beliefs, from the fight for their children and against torture, and inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment.

This persecution leaves those affected with an incredible number from abroad spectrum of psychological problems. Many of these families were once psychologically healthy, but, after the ordeal of torture and psychological cruelty, suffer psychoses, depression,post-traumatic stress disorders, and other psychic, or psychosomatic illnesses. Some suffer heart attacks, and some even commit suicide.

Personal documents and other evidence have been collected from the victims and their relations who have not survived the persecution, or who suffer from psychosomatic symptoms as a result of this persecution, yet in the legal and political sphere, this evidence cannot be put forth effectively.

Leonhard Seebald, formerly a psychologically sound man (the psychological torture to which he has been subjected has left permanent damage),died on 11 May 2010, two days after pressing charges of torture against the Republic of Austria.

Mr.Kröpfl took his own life in October 2009 after several instances of psychic cruelty and threats by the public authorities of the Republic of Austria.

Anna Kröpfl suffered a myocardial infarct, documented and broadcast by the ORF on 19 February 2010, caused by torture and psychic cruelty.

Luca Gardener died at the age of 17 months on 3 November 2008 from physical and psychic abuse at the hands of government and non-government torturers.

Angelika Sieder, née 20 January 2004, was sexually abused, infected with chlamydia and drugged (charges were sandbagged); her grandparents were threatened with psychiatric persecution and custodial guardianship if they should fight for their granddaughters, Angelika and Veronika Sieder, née 14 November 2007. The grandparents Krautsieder have been prescribed a compulsory therapy and psychotropic drugs by order of the court for their complaints concerning sexual abuse.

Julian Theiss, a healthy ten-year-old, suffered a myocardial infarct from psychic torture at the hands of the government on 27 July 2008.Charges pressed against the presumed government torturers were dismissed and grave sanctions imposed on the child's mother. The child's mother and stepfather continue to be persecuted politically, legally and with false psychiatric diagnoses for their charges against the presumed torturers.

Michelle Theiss, was sexually abused, and the youth welfare office travestied the child, who was then only three years old, and persecuted her mother for her charges. At the age of fifteen, the minor herself spoke about her sexual abuse. The court ignored the minor's testimony.

Sebastian Theiss, sexually abused by members of the church, was put in in-patient psychiatric treatment under strong psychotropic medication for the charges. Persecuted politically and legally, he is to be placed under custodial guardianship, lest further charges be pressed against the Republic of Austria. For her charges against physicians,as a witness to torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment, his mother is tortured psychically and isolated from her son through custodial guardianship.

Victor Kronberger, was sexually abused, but the presumed abuser is understate protection, and the minor himself is on heavy psychotropic medication. For her charges, his mother is psychically and physically tortured and tormented.

Barbara Seebald, having been subjected to torture at the hands of the government, is being indicted for her complaint of sexual abuse and subjected to a mockery of negotiations. Her mother, Ms. Barbara Seebald, faces the threat of imprisonment for her complaints about torture.

The minor children Lukas, Schima and Fay Seebald are being prepared for their mother's death by the youth welfare office. Their mother is in a state of good health. The possible death of the mother has been diagnosed and addressed only by the youth welfare office. The youth welfare office is not qualified to make any diagnosis.

Muriel Seebald was forcibly discharged from the children's clinic under false pretences and with police power.

Alexandra Dalewska's newborn baby was taken from her under false pretences and with police power under torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment for politically motivated revocation of her parental custody, and for forced adoption. The mother was placed in in-patient psychiatric treatment, and has since been persecuted politically,legally and psychiatrically, i.a. through false psychiatric diagnoses.

In order that they may be tortured, and subjected to generally inhuman,cruel and degrading treatment, the victims are taken to psychiatric institutions by police force and held there, where the effects of all forms of torture can be attributed to the victims' own disorders.The torture victims, even those of minority age, are forbidden to show any reaction to the torture. Any reaction whatsoever is sanctioned, written up as a mental or psychiatric disorder and/or asa danger to the victim or to others, and reported to the court. Those affected have no opportunity to bring forth evidence effectively or call politicians' attention to their cases.

The victims are put under pressure and told to give up their convictions,to renounce their children, and to drop their charges against the authorities.

Sebastian Theiss was repeatedly psychiatrically tested and pressured for having sent a letter to the petition office of the UN anti-torture committee.

Thedomestic investigation has failed completely.

All domestic efforts toward the goal of exposing and preventing of torture by both government and non-government torturers were rejected by the Austrian penal authorities. Any and every indication of torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment was categorically denied by the Austrian public attorneys. How far must torturers go in orderthat they not be (falsely) regarded by the Austrian public legal authorities as [in accord with the constitution and with human rights] "žim Einklang mit der Verfassung und den Menschenrechtenstehend" and thus protected, nay, in effect, even supported? The victims are continually returned to the original torturers, so thateach charge pressed only serves to strengthen the destructive vicious circle and to densify the network of torture to which the victims are exposed. This shows the complete failure of domestic investigations and legal apparatus to prevent the widespread torture, so that the international protection of the UN is urgently needed to put a stopto the continued acts of torture, and to see that the torturers are held responsible for their actions.

The international aid of the UN is urgently needed to hinder any further torture actions!

Nointernational complaint has yet been able to be put forth effectively.

Complaints addressed to international organisations such as the UN and the European Court of Human Rights of the provable interception of filesi n at least three cases of torture were intercepted again by Austrian authorities.

The application of the obligation to guarantee and protect human rights in the Republic of Austria requires legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that human rights can be realised in fact. A protective duty of the state is, after all, also presumed, a duty intended to protect human rights from attacks by third parties(so-called indirect third-party- or horizontal effect).

The duty to guarantee human rights provides preventative measures, on the one hand, which are intended to hinder violations of human rights in advance through according precautions. Should human rights violations nevertheless occur, then the state will not be released from its responsibility. It has to take care, rather, that human rights violations are exposed, those responsible be made to answer for their deeds, and that the victims receive some sort of recompensation.

Aright to legal protection of rights follows from the human rights related obligations of the government of the Republic of Austria.This follows from various human rights documents such as Art. 2 (3)ICCPR i.V.m.  Art. 6,7 ICCPR, Art. 2,3,6 und 13 EMRK, Art. 12,Art. 13 and 14 of the UN-Anti-Folterkonvention, and Art. 10 AEMR, and is also to be seen as an integral part of the prevention, especially since the right to legal protection has its end in recompensation and satisfaction for the victim as well as in the prevention of repeated human rights violations.

The right to legal protection has a substantive and a procedural component. The latter is fulfilled by the state having to institute according legal protection in the system of state government, i.e. to guarantee due process in a constitutional state. In order to fulfil the state's duty to conduct an effective investigation, a thorough and effective clarification of the state of affairs is essential.

The relations must have effective access to this investigation, especially in cases where the victim has been killed illegally by state authorities.

These standards are also valid according to the UN pact for civil rights(ICCPR). If a person's rights as they have been set down in the pact have been violated, he or she has the right to an effective complaint according to Art. 2 Abs. 3 ICCPR. This right requires that the case be officially investigated and that the guilty be held responsible.

Special attention is due to human rights violations that occur under the influence or participation of state institutions. Legal stipulations that forbid the arbitrary use of state power would be useless if there were no procedure for investigating the use of state power(deportation / forced psychiatric therapy) with respect to its propriety. The right to life is to be understood in connection with the general stipulation according to which the states that are parties to the contract ensure the rights guaranteed in the convention to all persons within their jurisdiction. Consequently, a duty exists that an effective official investigation shall be conducted when persons are moved to suicide by state powers, when children suffer myocardial infarcts and no help of any sort is made available, but is simply neglected.  

The ethical duty of medical personnel is formulated at three levels that appear in the documents of the UN in the same way for legal personnel. A country's medical professional organisations and organisations of physicians and medical experts also establish ethical guidelines. Their members are expected to follow these guidelines. The central principle of any ethic of the health profession, how ever it be formulated, is the fundamental duty to act always in the properly understood interest of the patient, regardless of other such interfering factors as external pressure or contractual obligations.

Participation in torture includes the appraisal of a person's capability to withstand abuse, presence during abuse, observing or inflicting abuse, reviving persons in order that they be abused, or providing medical treatment immediately before, during or after torture according to the instructions of those who are probably responsible for the torture, relaying professional expertise or personal information on individuals' health to torturers, and intentionally ignoring evidence of torture and abuse. For the implementation of measures of torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of employees of the youth welfare office, courts and public authorities, non-governmental torturers, such as physicians, private persons or private institutions are assigned to persecute, prosecute,and accuse the victims, to place them under continuous psychological stress, and to subject them to constant anguish and fear. The victims have no opportunity to proceed against such torture measures by pressing charges. Charges pressed against torturers effect severe consequences for those affected, such as imprisonment, psychiatric therapy, custodial guardianship, and the like. Accusations of torture are usually met with mock negotiations and procedures unfair to the victims, and a recommendation of psychiatric therapy and custodial guardianship is usually submitted, so that the victims cannot defend themselves against further torture acts. The victims are socially ostracised, and are pressured into homelessness or arbitrary treatment at the hands of the government via curtailment or cancellation of their income.  

The torture, the inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment in at least 63cases cannot be isolated as a status determining phenomenon, for torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment is not a delimitable individual phenomenon in Austria.

In many cases, public health officers, psychiatrists and police are taken along under administrative assistance to torture measures by youth welfare offices and other authorities in Austria in order officially to document the traces of torture as psychiatric /psychological disorders, and to bring the victims of forced adoption and of revocation of custody into in-patient psychiatric institutions and into state custody.

Illegal interrogation methods, physical and psychological assaults by the authorities or their employees cannot be brought before a court in Austria.

This is an extreme instrument of repression that easily slides over into the realm of the inhuman and back.

Already the preliminary stages of torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment must be recognised and named. It is insufficient to see torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment as a synonym for the under development of other states, banning it from such democratic systems as Austria's.

Torture victims are bereft of their human dignity, their social values and their to respect being taken away, and their inner personalities severely damaged. Children and parents suffer an inner personal injury, or a severe trauma, that can never be healed, nor made good.

The torture victims suffer the deepest violation of their identities' security, with grave fears of complete, ultimate helplessness.

The victims' ability to act is blocked by fears and paralysed. In this state, the victims are subjected to an arbitrary expert examination for the security of the state. By their own account, 2.5 % of the population of the Republic of Austria is under custodial guardianship. This is often a case of "having someone disappear"according to modern methods. Torture victims are given heavy psychotropic drugs and often spend many years in closed psychiatric institutions or under state psychiatric supervision as a penalty for their exercise of their right to freedom of opinion and for their complaint of human rights violations and torture. Proper legal means in the case of torture and human rights violations are often countered with psychological and psychiatric diagnoses.

Even today torture victims are still persecuted and psychically tormented.Many are on the run, having had to leave their homes.

Due to the right to public information, which is guaranteed in article 10of the European Human Rights Convention both as active and passive right, it seems needful that the Republic of Austria make the information on the 63 torture complaints. This obligatory informative measure by the Republic of Austria is especially needful under consideration of the medial harassment of the victims,especially the torture victims Barbara and Leonhard Seebald, as the distribution of this information is in the interest of the common good.  

Thefederal president, Dr. Fischer, confirmed on 26 April 2010 under GZ S711100/136-STR/2010: [A political media blockade is no more provided for in our legal system, (than) "¦] "ž Eine politischeMediensperre ist in unserer Rechtsordnung ebensowenig vorgesehen.." 

The media have been informed on the torture complaints in great detail.

Boththe Kleine Zeitungand the Steirerkrone,and possibly other newspapers as well intentionally endangered the torture victim Seebald through harassment campaigns on 3 June 2010publicly and medially, and violated article13 of the UN anti-torture convention and international law:

Each State Party shall ensure that any individual who alleges he has been subjected to torture in any territory under its jurisdiction has the right to complain to, and to have his case promptly and impartially examined by, its competent authorities.Steps shall be taken to ensure that the complainant and witnesses are protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of his complaint or any evidence given.

These methods are reminiscent of the darkest periods of history, times thought long past.

Barbara Seebald                   Leonhard Seebald died on: May/11/2010

Daniel Oschadleus                Daniela Theiss

Josef Krautsieder                  Christine Krautsieder

further torture victims: see collective torture complaint