Human rights in Germany

Based on the experience with the atrocities of the Nazi regime, human rights in Germany are protected extensively by the constitution. The country has ratified most international human rights treaties. Reports from independent organizations such as Amnesty International certify a high level of compliance with human rights, while still pointing out several issues, in particular police brutality and mistreatment of refugees.

Law

The constitution of Germany, the "Grundgesetz", which came into effect in 1949, puts a particular emphasis on human rights. Its first sentence, "Human dignity is inviolable", is being interpreted as protecting the sum of human rights. This paragraph is protected by an "eternity clause" and cannot be changed. It has wide-ranging effects on judicial practice; for example, it has been used to justify the right on Informational self-determination in a 1983 finding of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.

However, following experiences from the Weimar Republic, Germany sees itself as a "wehrhafte Demokratie" (defensive democracy); actions targeted towards removing the democratic order are not covered by human rights.

The constitution guarantees all rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which itself is not legally binding), with the exception of an unlimited right for asylum.

The ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights allows citizens to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Male citizens are required to do a military service of currently 9 months. At any time, conscientious objectors can opt to do "Zivildienst" (civilian service) instead. For the time of both services, many human rights are suspended. Due to lack of demand for soldiers, in current practice many citizens engage in neither service.

Treaties

Germany has ratified the following legally binding international treaties:

* 1953: Council of Europe European Convention on Human Rights
* 1954: UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
* ????: UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
* 1961: Council of Europe European Social Charter
* 1969: UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
* 1973: UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
* 1976: UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
* 1985: UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
* 1985: Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data
* 1990: UN Convention Against Torture
* 1992: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (only signed under reserve)

Germany is also a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It recognizes the International Criminal Court.

Reports

The Amnesty International reports of 2005 and 2006 mainly criticize police brutality, mistreatment of refugees, and racist attacks.

The 2007 Freedom in the World report by US-funded Freedom House gives Germany a score of "1" (the best possible) for both political rights and civil liberties.

Topics

Custody

The death penalty is abolished. Remand must be ordered by a judge. Usually, a suspect cannot be detained for more than six months without a conviction. The courts may order that a person be detained indefinitely if he is convicted of particularly serious crimes and has completed his sentence but is judged, after expert testimony, to be a danger to the public ("Sicherungsverwahrung"). This is usually applied to sex offenders.

The German citizen Khalid El-Masri was abducted by the CIA in 2005 and interned without trial for months, although innocent. German intelligence was informed early about this, but undertook nothing, which is currently subject to an intense political debate.

Freedom of Speech

:"Main article: Censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany"

Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution. However, "Volksverhetzung" (incitement of the people) is a crime, defined as spreading hate against or insult against a part of the population. In 1994, a paragraph explicitly forbidding denial of Nazi crimes was added.

These practices were criticized by the United States Department of State report, but are generally accepted in Germany as part of the "wehrhafte Demokratie" (defensive democracy).

Freedom of Assembly

Open-air public rallies require (generally) prior announcement to the local authorities, but no permits. Local authorities can prohibit rallies only on grounds of public safety concerns or involvement of outlawed organizations. This has occasionally happened for Neo-Nazi rallies. This is seen as a problem by the U.S. Department of State report, but rarely draws criticism in Germany, except from Nazi supporters.

Freedom of Press

Freedom of press is generally very established in Germany; the 2006 press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders rates Germany at place 23 of 168 countries.

In 2005, minister of the interior Otto Schily authorized a raid of offices of the periodical Cicero, which was criticized as an attack on press freedom by part of the German press. The raid was based on a substantiated suspicion of leaking of state secrets. However, on February 27 2007, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that suspicion that a journalist is aiding the betrayal of state secrets is not sufficient to warrant a search, and thus the raid was illegal. The finding has been widely regarded as a strengthening of press freedom [http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID6460308_NAV_REF1,00.html] .

A scandal regarding spying on journalists by the secret service "Bundesnachrichtendienst", starting in May 2006, has not been cleared up yet.

Human trafficking

There has been a growing awareness of human trafficking as a human rights issue in Europe ("see main article: trafficking in human beings"). The end of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia has contributed to an increase in human trafficking, with the majority of victims being women forced into prostitution. [http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Themes/trafficking/] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3979725.stm] Germany is a transit and destination country for persons, primarily women, trafficked mainly from Central and Eastern Europe and from Africa for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Russia alone accounted for one-quarter of the 1,235 identified victims reported in 2003, the latest year for which statistics are available. For the first time, Germany’s statistics included German nationals who numbered 127. [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46613.htm] [http://www.catwinternational.org/factbook/Germany.php]

Police brutality

Amnesty International reports very few incidents of police brutality.

Refugees

Amnesty International and other organizations reported several incidents of mistreatment of refugees. Also, the practice of deporting asylum seekers to countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo, where their safety is unclear, is widely criticized.

Torture

There are no reports on systematic use of torture in Germany. However, there were some related incidents.

In 2002, Frankfurt's police vice president Wolfgang Daschner ordered a subordinate officer to threaten the suspect of a kidnapping to use force in order to get information on the whereabouts of the abductee (the abductee was killed shortly after the kidnapping, but the suspect told the police that the child was still alive, and Daschner decided to break the law to save the child's life. Daschner himself wrote down an official note of his actions). This triggered an emotional debate over the legality of such measures. Daschner was convicted to the lowest possible penalty of a fine. Daschner and the subordinate officer remained in duty.

In a trial against terror suspect Mounir El Motassadeq, a court used evidence provided by US authorities, despite widespread evidence of torture in US detainment camps. The conviction was rejected in appeal due to lack of evidence. In January 2007 he was condemned for 15 years in detention.

urveillance

Several extremist parties, such as the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and the communist platform of the Left Party, are under surveillance from the "Verfassungsschutz" (domestic secret service). The use of police informers has sometimes been criticized as excessive. A trial against the NPD was aborted, because it became apparent that many actions of the NPD were actually controlled by the Verfassungsschutz. In addition to extremist parties, the German Government placed the Church of Scientology and its members in Germany under surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) since 1997 for the alleged goal of abolishing the order based on the German Grundgesetz.

External links

* [http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-deu/index Archive of Germany reports] by Amnesty International.
* [http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2005&country=6742 2006 Country report on Germany] by Freedom House.
* [http://hrw.org/doc?t=europe&c=german Archive of Germany reports] by Human Rights Watch.
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/198/ Censorship cases in Germany] reported by the International Freedom of Expression Exchange
* [http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/freedom_detail.html?country=/KW0001/KW0003/KW0062/ 2005 World Press Freedom Review on Germany] by the International Press Institute
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61650.htm 2005] U.S. State Department country report on human rights practices in Germany.
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51554.htm 2005] U.S. State Department country report on religious freedom in Germany.

Footnotes