Initiative for Minorities

For 15 years, Initiative Minderheiten has been advocating for and contributing to creating a society that acknowledges and affords equal treatment and equal rights to minorities in their individual life concepts regardless of their ethnic, social or religious affiliation, sexual orientation or dis/ability. A society can only be considered to have acknowledged minority rights if it facilitates and supports different life concepts in a fair and equal manner. Initiative Minderheiten works towards creating minority alliances.

IM defines a minority as people who experience discrimination based on their ethnic, social or religious affiliation, sexual orientation or dis/ability. Politically, discrimination means excluding certain people from certain rights; socially, it means experiencing prejudices and exclusions. In Austria, legally recognized ethnic groups are also considered minorities, as well as migrants and refugees, lesbians and gays, and people with dis/abilities. This definition is not based on a group’s number of members, but rather on their lack of power in comparison to that of the hegemonic majority.

Initiative Minderheiten edits a quarterly journal STIMME von und für Minderheiten [VOICE of and for Minorities] and produces the bi-monthly radio program STIMME that airs on several free radio stations across Austria.