Aid facilities, contacts, guidebooks and other publications
Contact points for help in violence situations
Women who are victims of violence can turn to a large network of facilities offering legal and practical help. In addition to women experts providing support around the clock on the free women’s helpline (tel.: 0800/222 555), women’s emergency help lines are available in the event of rape, and Violence Protection Centres/ Intervention Centres have been set up to provide help in violence situations occurring in families and/or the social environment. Women’s shelters provide safe accommodation for women and their children who are at risk of or affected by violence.
Women who are victims of human trafficking or cross-border prostitution trade are given support at the Intervention Centre for Victims of Women Trafficking.
A number of counselling centres cater to migrant women who do not speak German or are not sufficiently fluent. The women’s helpline 0800 222 555 offers advice in various languages and refers callers to the nearest specialised facility.
Many Violence Protection Centres/Intervention Centres, women’s shelters and emergency helplines will offer counselling in the victims‘ native languages or will use interpreters where necessary.
The list of links (PDF 81 kB) (in German) gives an Austria-wide overview of women’s helplines, Violence Protection Centres/Intervention Centres and women’s shelters.
The brochure ″Frauen haben Recht(e)“ (PDF 1388 kB) (in German) lists the options available to women seeking protection and trying to assert their rights, summarises the major procedures and offers an insight into the collaboration between police, judicial authorities and aid facilities.
To enable women to access any kind of help available, the following descriptions give an overview of the aid facilities that focus on the protection of victims.
Women’s helpline against violence
0800/222 555 (free of charge within Austria)
Counselling: 24/7, anonymous and free of charge, 365 days a year.
A team of women experts offer help seekers first advice and crisis counselling and refer them to regional protection and counselling facilities for women. Moreover, they inform about legal and social issues and provide quick help in emergency situations.
Foreign-language counselling is offered in Arabic, English, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish.
For detailed information please see
Helplines for rape victims
Women’s helplines are psychosocial facilities offering specifically targeted assistance for women and adolescent girls who have experienced sexual violence.
Helplines provide the following services:
- Crisis intervention
- Psychosocial counselling
- Psychotherapy (referral on request and if required)
- Traumatotherapy (referral on request and if required)
- Psychosocial and legal assistance during court proceedings
- Counselling for attachment figures
- Events (for multiplicators, attachment figures, interested persons)
- If required, use of interpreters
The federal states of Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol and Vienna have set up autonomous helplines that provide professional assistance during operating hours. Outside these hours, and for affected persons from other federal states, the women’s helpline 0800/222 555 (free of charge within Austria), offers first advice and crisis counselling regardless of the caller’s residence. If necessary, callers will be referred to the appropriate facility of the respective federal state.
For detailed information please see the joint homepage of (in German)
Operating 24/7, 365 days a year, the 24-hour Women’s Emergency Helpline of the City of Vienna (+43 1 71 71 9) is available anonymously and free of charge for women and girls from age 14 who are affected by sexual, physical or mental violence. For more information please see (in German)
Violence Protection Centres / Intervention Centres against Domestic Violence
Violence Protection Centres/Intervention Centres offer active help and support for affected persons, free of charge and confidentially – in particular after police interventions in the event of domestic violence and stalking. Their primary task is to protect the victims and enhance their safety.
These victims’ aid facilities serve as hubs for all institutions involved (e.g. security authorities, courts, youth welfare authorities, women’s shelters).
Violence Protection Centres/Intervention Centres provide a wide range of services:
- Help with improving protection and safety for women and their children
- Information and support especially after an eviction, the filing of a complaint or arrest of a perpetrator, or after a dispute settlement by the police
- Assistance with the phrasing and filing of applications with a court and help with contacting authorities
- Assistance during police questioning and court proceedings
- If necessary, referral to other facilities (women’s shelters, counselling centres for women and families, child protection facilities, psychotherapists etc.)
- If necessary, counselling in the native language of affected persons or use of interpreters
Each federal state has its own Violence Protection Centre/Intervention Centre. Some federal states also have regional centres.
(in German)
Information about the Violence Protection Centres in Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg is provided on their joint homepage
(in German)
Women’s shelters in Austria
Women’s shelters offer immediate help, without any red tape, for endangered or abused women and their children, including protection, accommodation/safe living quarters, meals and counselling. Women’s shelter workers counsel, accompany and support affected persons in dealings with authorities, alimony and custody matters, divorce issues, finding a job and a place to live. Advice is provided regardless of nationality, religious belief or income.
Women’s shelters provide a wide range of services:
- Emergency aid
- Protection and accommodation
- Crisis intervention
- Psychosocial counselling
- Legal advice
- Guidance
- Help with filing applications
- Follow-up care
- Referral
- On-call service around the clock
- Care and advice for children and adolescents
- If necessary, native-language counselling or interpreting service
(in German)
Information Centre Against Violence of the Association of Austrian Autonomous Women’s Shelters
The Information Centre was created with the goal of preventing domestic violence against women and children and ensuring effective cooperation of all societal institutions. The Information Centre carries out projects for the prevention of violence against women/domestic violence.
The services provided by the Information Centre target the media, police, courts, medical workers, students, educational institutions etc., and include:
- Producing and supplying information material
- Information provided by telephone or in person, referral to aid facilities
- Information for various target groups: media, police, courts, medical workers, students, educational institutions etc.
- Preparing and holding seminars for training/advanced training
- Providing women experts and instructors for events
- Advice and support with the launching of initiatives to combat violence against women
For more information please see (in German)
Intervention Centre for Persons Affected by Women Trafficking (IBF)
A team of multi-lingual female experts support women migrants who - having been forced to work as prostitutes or lured to Austria by means of marriage trade or trade in domestic servants - are reduced to living in conditions of blatant exploitation. IBF closely cooperates with government authorities and private institutions and also maintains contacts with non-governmental organisations abroad, with the aim of informing female migrants in their home countries about violence prevention and coordinating service options for affected women and girls in the countries of origin, transit and destination countries.
IBF offers the following services:
- Temporary emergency accommodation with native-language care and counselling
- Visiting women in custody pending deportation if there is grounds for suspicion that they are victims of women trafficking
- Health advice, psychological and social counselling, psychotherapy and life counselling
- Counselling and intervention related to residence and labour laws
- Assistance during police questioning
- Assistance for victims during court proceedings, legal representation
- Support with obtaining documents
(documents required under aliens’ laws, registration form, duplicates of travel documents, certificates for the journey home)
- German language courses and other options for advanced training
- Other options for promoting integration
- or preparing for return in cooperation with NGOs in the countries of origin as well as other organisations
For detailed information please see
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