A/HRC/42/42/Add.2 activities abroad. Authorities may withdraw citizenship from an Austrian dual national who voluntarily and actively participates in fighting in an armed conflict. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-terrorism, which is the key counter-terrorism agency within the Ministry of the Interior, has reported ongoing efforts to address radicalization to violence by extremist groups, including those identified by the Office as Islamist extremist groups. 21. In response to issues concerning foreign fighters, law enforcement agencies have focused on intelligence gathering and investigations, while integration officials have engaged in public outreach to prevent radicalization to violence. In 2017, a number of pieces of legislation were approved on the use of stringent surveillance measures, with farreaching surveillance powers being granted to the Government’s security agencies. These measures have raised concerns relating to their implications on, inter alia, the right to assembly, the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy. 22. Austria supports the work of the Security Council, in particular its CounterTerrorism Committee and its Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities. Austria has financially contributed to, and thus enabled the start of, the Global Programme against Terrorism by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Austria has taken an active approach to implementing Security Council resolution 2178 (2014) to counter foreign terrorist fighters and resolution 2199 (2015) to counter ISIL, and has taken steps to incorporate the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s good practices on foreign terrorist fighters. 5 It is also a member of the international counter-ISIL coalition and its working groups on foreign terrorist fighters and on stabilization. 23. Austria is party to several bilateral and multilateral treaties in the field of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition, including the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and its Additional Protocol, and the European Convention on Extradition and its Second Additional Protocol. 24. At the time of the visit, the Working Group was informed of a draft national strategy on deradicalization and prevention of violent extremism, which had yet to be adopted. The Working Group noted the critical need to ensure the valuable contributions of civil society organizations and community groups to the content of this strategy and to ensure that it would not focus exclusively on security and law enforcement measures but would also cover the multidimensional areas with which violent extremism and radicalization are linked. In that regard, the National Network for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and De-radicalization, which was founded by the Ministry of the Interior in 2017 and involves approximately 70 experts from multiple sectors of society, including health, education and the media, can significantly assist with the programmes on deradicalization and countering violent extremism. 25. The national human rights institution is the Austrian Ombudsman Board. In recommendations contained in the country’s universal periodic review in 2015, reference was made to the need to ensure that the appointment of board members complied with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles) (see A/HRC/31/12). 26. The private security industry in Austria is not regulated by sector-specific legislation. Rather, it is covered by a general commercial law, the Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation Act 1994. This law does not allow a company to provide armed private security services unless a special licence has been granted to it by the national authority in charge of drafting and amending legislation in this area, the Gewerbebehörde or Trade Authority. This authority is responsible for controls and inspections, and may impose administrative and penal sanctions. 5 See www.thegctf.org/About-us/GCTF-documentsf. 5