GPIL – German Practice in International Law

Published: 04 March 2019  Author: Stefan Talmon  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-161121-0

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  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-150249-0

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  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-144527-0

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…)

Published: 15 February 2019  Author: Stefan Talmon  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-142509-0

On 13 February 2019, the Federal Government adopted its 13th Human Rights Report. In 1991, Parliament called upon the Government to produce bi-annual reports on its human rights policy in both foreign relations and other policy fields. In its resolution, Parliament had declared: (more…)

Published: 14 February 2019  Author: Stefan Talmon  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-135456-0

Germany has been a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since 1992. Every five years, State parties must submit a report to the Committee of the Rights of the Child on the measures they have adopted giving effect to the rights recognized in the Convention, and on the progress made on the enjoyment of those rights. On 13 February 2019, the German Government adopted the report to be submitted to the Committee for the period 2014-2018. The due date for the report is 4 April 2019. (more…)

Published: 09 February 2019  Author: Stefan Talmon  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-134624-0

On 4 September 2007, German authorities arrested Turkish citizen Adem Yilmaz, also known as Ebu Talha, together with two other members of a terrorist cell of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). The three had plotted bombing attacks against public places and U.S. military facilities in Germany, including Ramstein Air Base. The suspects had acquired chemical substances to make explosives equivalent to 550 kilograms of dynamite. On 4 March 2010, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf sentenced Adem Yilmaz to 11 years imprisonment for participating as a member in a terrorist organization abroad; conspiracy to commit murder, cause an explosion and coerce constitutional organs; and acts in preparation of an explosion offence. Rendering the judgment, the presiding judge said that the case had “shown with frightening clarity what acts young people who are filled with hatred, blinded and seduced by wrong-headed ideas of jihad are prepared and able to carry out.” (more…)

Published: 20 January 2019  Author: Stefan Talmon  DOI: 10.17176/20220106-133832-0

Germany is a champion of the so-called “rules-based order”. In the speeches and statements of Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and other Foreign Office officials there are frequent references to a “rules-based order”, a “rules-based international order”, a “rules-based global order”, a “rules-based multilateral order”, or a “rules-based system”. Germany considers the rules-based order to be increasingly called into question, and wants to be a defender of that order. It has attempted to build an “alliance of multilaterlists” who join forces to protect, and continue to develop, the rules-based order. In statements of the Federal Foreign Office, such references to a “rules-based order” have largely replaced references to the “international legal order” or “international law”. (more…)

Published: 05 January 2019  Author: Stefan Talmon  DOI: 10.17176/20220105-120105-0

In 2018 Germany signed more than 115 bilateral agreements. In contrast, Germany signed just one multilateral treaty during that period. In addition, Germany signed numerous non-binding Memoranda of Understanding and Declarations of Intent. The following is an incomplete list compiled from public sources: (more…)

Published: 20 September 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

September 18th, 2018 marked the 45th anniversary of the admission of the two Germanys to the United Nations Organization. Twenty-eight years after the end of the Second World War, that had brought together the “United Nations” in their fight against the German Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) were admitted by acclamation as member States numbers 133 and 134, respectively. (more…)

Published: 24 July 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 1 July 2018, Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat based at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Vienna, was arrested at a rest area on the A3 motorway in south-east Germany on a European arrest warrant issued by Belgian law enforcement authorities. The Belgian authorities sought the extradition of Assadi for his role in commissioning a Belgian-Iranian couple to carry out an explosive attack on an annual meeting of an Iranian opposition group in France on 30 June 2018. For that purpose, he was said to have handed the couple an explosive device with a total of 500 grams of the explosive TATP in Luxembourg City at the end of June 2018. On the day of the attack, Belgian security forces had arrested the couple en route to France and secured the device.

On 3 July 2018, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs summoned the Iranian ambassador to Vienna and requested that Iran lift the immunity of Assadi within 48 hours. However, the Iranian Government did not accede to the request. On the contrary, on 4 July 2018, the Iranian Government summoned the French and Belgian ambassadors and Germany’s chargé d’affaires (in the absence of the German ambassador) to Tehran in protest at the arrest of the Iranian diplomat in Germany. In a press release the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated: (more…)