GPIL – German Practice in International Law

Published: 11 July 2019 Author: Rosie Good

On 3 April 2019, an indictment was brought against German national Mine K. before the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. The Federal Prosecutor alleges that Mine K. joined the foreign terrorist organisation Islamic State (“IS”) through a video-call marriage to an IS fighter in January 2015. Subsequently, she travelled with her young son and new husband to Mosul, Iraq, where her husband earned about 250 USD a month as an IS fighter. In August 2015, they moved to the city of Tal Afar in Iraq. The city and surrounding area had already been conquered and occupied by the Islamic State in June 2014. The terrorist organization placed houses in the city under their administration after their rightful inhabitants had fled or been driven out by IS fighters. The family of the accused received one of these houses for use. They moved willingly into the house in order to consolidate the territorial claim of the organization, and to make recapture by opposing military forces more difficult. (more…)

Published: 29 June 2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

In the second half of June 2019, several candidates nominated by Germany were elected to serve on various international human rights bodies.

United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

On 21 June 2019, the twenty-eighth meeting of the States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination elected Professor Mehrdad Payandeh, together with eight other candidates to serve on the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Sixteen candidates had initially been nominated, and 14 finally stood for election for nine vacant positions. The Committee is a body of 18 “experts of high moral standing and acknowledged impartiality” that monitors implementation of the Convention. Germany has been a party to the Convention since 15 June 1969. There are currently 181 parties to the Convention. CERD members are elected for four-year terms, with half the members elected every two years. The new members will begin their terms of office on 19 January 2020. (more…)

Published: 01 June 2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 9 April 2019 the first-ever war crimes trial against a member of the “Islamic State” started before the Higher Regional Court of Munich. The Federal Prosecutor alleges that Jennifer Wenisch, a German national, joined the decision-making and command structure of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State (“IS”) in Iraq in September 2014. From June to September 2015, she patrolled parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mossul as a member of the IS morality police, enforcing rules of conduct and dress code for women. In order to intimidate she carried a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a pistol and an explosives vest. For her services she received a monthly salary from the Islamic State of some US$70 to 100. According to the indictment, it was during the summer of 2015 that the accused and her husband “bought a five-year old [Yazidi] girl out of a group of prisoners of war and subsequently kept the child in their household as a slave.” After the girl fell ill and wet her mattress, the husband of the accused chained her up outside as punishment and let the child die an agonizing death of thirst in scorching heat. The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl. (more…)

Published: 20 May 2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 27 March 2019, India conducted “Mission Shakti”, an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test. The country fired a surface-to-space ballistic missile at its own 740kg Microsat-R earth observation satellite at an altitude of 283km in low earth orbit (LEO). The missile hit the orbiting satellite which was the size of a small car destroying both the object and target with the force of the impact. The use of this kinetic-kill technique creates a cloud of debris that can threaten other satellites, spacecraft and the International Space Station (ISS). The United States National Air and Space Agency (NASA) estimated that Mission Shakti created at least 400 pieces of debris of which 24 were thrown into orbits with apogees above the ISS. The U.S. space agency also warned that the risk of debris colliding with the ISS had risen by 44 percent as a result of the Indian ASAT test. According to a preliminary assessment of the German Aerospace Centre of the 74 debris objects created by the test and for which orbital data was available, some 10 would remain in orbit for more than three months, some considerably longer. India, on the other hand, stated: “The test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris. Whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back onto the earth within weeks.”

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Published: 05 April  2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

Following the United States’ illegal recognition of Israel’s annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan, on 26 March 2019 Syria asked the UN Security Council presidency, then held by France, to schedule an urgent meeting in order to “discuss the situation in the occupied Syrian Golan and the recent flagrant violation of the relevant Security Council’s resolution by a permanent Member State.”

The Security Council was scheduled to meet behind closed doors on 27 March 2019 to discuss the situation in the Middle East and, in particular, the mandate of the peacekeeping force on the Golan, known as United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). In response to Syria’s request, France decided to turn that meeting into a public session and to give members an opportunity to address the action by the United States. However, unlike the other speakers, Germany’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, did not dwell long on the subject. Rather, he used the opportunity for an all-out attack on the Syrian Government, stating: (more…)

Published: 04 April  2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

At its sixty-ninth session in 2017, the International Law Commission (ILC) adopted the draft articles on crimes against humanity on first reading. In accordance with its statute, the ILC decided to transmit the draft articles through the Secretary-General to Governments, international organizations, and others for comments and observations. On 30 November 2018, Germany submitted written comments on both the ILC’s work on the crimes against humanity in general and on specific draft articles. The general comments read as follows: (more…)

Published: 01 April  2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

During the Six-Day War in June 1967 Israel captured the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights from Syria and has occupied them ever since. Some 90,000 Syrians and some 17,000 Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA fled or were driven from the territory. Over the years some 23,000 Israelis settlers moved to the territory and now live alongside the remaining Druze Arab population of roughly the same number. On 14 December 1981, the Knesset, the Parliament of Israel, passed the Golan Heights Law which provided, inter alia, that “the law, jurisdiction and administration of the state shall apply to the Golan Heights, as described in the Appendix.” The law amounted to the annexation of the territory by Israel which was not recognized by the international community. (more…)

Published: 04 March 2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 3 February 2019, in a front page article headed “World powers warn SA on graft: Presidency receives unprecedented memo on corruption”, the South African newspaper Sunday Times reported that the German Embassy in Pretoria, together with the embassies of the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States and the United Kingdom High Commission, had written to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa warning him that failure to act against those implicated in corruption placed foreign investment at risk. The five States account for 75 percent of foreign direct investment in South Africa. (more…)

Published: 21 February 2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

When presenting the Federal Government’s 13th Human Rights Report to Parliament on 19 February 2019, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced that Germany would run again for the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva – a year earlier than planned. He stated: (more…)

Published: 20 February 2019 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 19 February 2019, hearings in a war crimes trial before the Third Senate of the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart opened (case file no. 3 – 3 StE 5/18). 29-year old Syrian national Mohamad K. – who served in the rebel “Free Syrian Army” from January 2012 to January 2013 – was charged, together with others, with the torture of two prisoners who were involved in a pro-government militia in the Syrian province of Idlib, according to the German Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL). Section 8(1)(3) of the CCAIL provides: (more…)