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Austrian NGOs give FIFA ‘red card’

Austrian NGOs and unions have taken the opportunity one day ahead of the FIFA World Cup kick-off in Brazil to renew their criticism of the human rights violations surrounding the sporting event.

Published: 11 June 2014 23:24 CEST
Austrian NGOs give FIFA 'red card'
Flags of nations in FIFA. Photo: FIFA Press picture

On Wednesday, guests and activists from the "Nosso Jogo" initiative ("Our Game" in Portuguese) complained in Vienna about the treatment of workers and civilians ahead of the games.

President of the construction and woodworker union of Rio de Janeiro, Nilson Duarte Costa, reminded listeners that nine people were killed in the construction of the World Cup stadiums. The deaths were mainly due to bad working conditions, he said. "We blame the Brazilian government and FIFA for everything that happened," said Costa.

Leila Regina da Silva from the Institute for Sustainable Development in Belo Horizonte complained about the treatment of people who had been living where the stadiums were built. There were many forced displacements, she said. Current estimates said 250,000 people were forced to leave their homes and businesses, and were not even properly recompensed for their losses, she added.

The head of the Austrian construction and woodworker union, Josef Muchitsch, showed solidarity with his Brazilian counterparts. In a historical comparison, he pointed out that slaves were used in ancient Rome more than 2,000 years ago to entertain visitors in the Coliseum. Now, 2000 years later, workers were forced to go over their physical limits so a football game could be shown on TV on time.

The organisation also pointed out that during the preparations for the next World Cup in 2022 in Qatar, 1200 construction workers had already been killed. FIFA should commemorate the dead workers at the opening ceremony tomorrow, said Nosso Jogo.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Austria ‘likely to be ice-free within 45 years’

Austria is set to become largely "ice-free" within 45 years, the country's Alpine Club warned Friday, as two of its glaciers last year melted by more than 100 metres.

Published: 6 April 2024 12:17 CEST
Austria 'likely to be ice-free within 45 years'

Amid growing concerns over the effects of extreme warming on glaciers around the world, the latest report by the Austrian Alpine Club (OeAV) showed that rapid glacial retreat over the past seven years had accelerated.

The study found that 93 Austrian glaciers observed by the organisation retreated by 23.9 metres (78.4 feet) on average last year, marking the third-biggest glacier melt since measurements began in 1891.

Two of the glaciers showed especially drastic declines, with the Pasterze shrinking by 203.5 metres and the Rettenbachferner by 127 metres.

The 2023 readings came after the worst year on record for glacier melt in Austria, with glaciers shrinking by 28.7 metres (94.2 feet) on average in 2022.

Faced with extreme warming in the Alps, glacial ice in Austria could largely disappear within 45 years, the Alpine Club warned, adding that restrictive climate protection measures were introduced too late.

“In 40 to 45 years, all of Austria will be pretty much ice-free,” Andreas Kellerer-Pirklbauer, head of the Alpine Club’s glacier measurement service, told reporters on Friday.

The OeAV urged increased protection of glaciers as part of overall efforts to sustain biodiversity, noting that expansions of ski resorts had put Alpine regions “under constant pressure”.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), major glaciers worldwide suffered the largest loss of ice since records began in 1950, “driven by extreme melt in both western North America and Europe”.

In Switzerland, where the WMO is based, Alpine glaciers have lost 10 percent of their volume in the past two years alone.

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