Action 21

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Aktion 21 - pro Bürgerbeteiligung is an Austrian umbrella organization for citizens 'initiatives and was founded in autumn 2006 as a non-party organization for citizens' initiatives with the aim of ensuring effective participation of the population in municipal planning and projects that can have a lasting impact on the quality of urban life.

The association, which originally worked for Vienna , was expanded to all of Austria in 2011. He supports citizens' initiatives, provides legal assistance and attracts more media attention to their concerns . The longer-term goal, however, is to anchor more rights to citizen participation in the city constitutions.

Agenda 21 and Action 21

Agenda 21 is an international key document that has been adopted as an instrument for public participation. It was decided in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development . The Aalborg Charter , which was adopted on May 27, 1994 by the European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns in Aalborg (Denmark), refers to them . The worldwide UN summit for sustainable development in Johannesburg in 2002 proclaimed a decade of " Local Action 21 " after the first decade of Agenda 21 in the "Call of Johannesburg" - a "Forward from the Agenda to Action" as a strategy for accelerated implementation in a sustainable manner Development.

Herta Wessely (* 1940), professionally active in insurance and editing (FAZ), is the chairwoman . Her first successful citizens' initiative was directed against the construction of an important piece of land, which she designed in 1990 with an ad hoc agenda group as a "garden of tranquility and senses". In June 2006 the garden was opened as a public park with a geological stone circle . Wessely is also a member of the Bacherpark citizens' initiative and has been its spokesperson since May 2004.

Members

Members are citizens' initiatives, associations and citizens in Austria, for whom the participation of the population in the planning and decision-making of municipal projects is a democratic political concern.

activities

In June 2011, at a press conference in the presence of representatives from the federal states, the decision was announced to expand the platform to all of Austria and to strive for a nationwide networking of citizens' initiatives throughout Austria. In addition, Aktion21 wants to be a platform for critical citizens through individual memberships.

In July 2011, the responsible deputy mayor Maria Vassilakou , whose department "Environment, Urban Planning and Transport" now also includes citizen participation, was presented with an extensive catalog of demands for "improving participatory democracy in Vienna".

Publications

  • Aktion21 published the following publication in November 2009: "Raus aus der Sackgasse - Citizens' Initiatives and Citizen Participation in Vienna" (special number publisher - foreword Anneliese Rohrer ), ISBN 978-3854493242

In addition to a theoretical part, an analysis of the political situation in Austria and an outlook on how civic participation could work, the struggle of committed citizens against politics and institutions is described using 38 examples.

  • Herta Wessely, chairwoman, and Helmut Hofmann, secretary and founding chairman of "Aktion 21 - pro Bürgerbeteiligung" are co-authors of the publication "Mehr Mut, Bürger!"

ISBN 978-3950285321

Web links

Footnotes