GPIL – German Practice in International Law

Published: 10 February 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 7 January 2011, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a report on “Inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo” which found, inter alia, that during and after the armed struggle of the Kosovar Albanians against Serbia in the period from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 2000, ethnic Serbs and Kosovar Albanians were held prisoner in secret places of detention under control of the “Kosovo Liberation Army” (KLA) in northern Albania and were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, before ultimately disappearing. Some of these prisoners also had their organs removed to be taken abroad for transplantation. This report caused the European Union in September 2011 to establish a Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) as part of its Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) to conduct an independent criminal investigation into the allegations contained in the report, as well as into other crimes connected to those allegations. (more…)

Published: 08 February 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

Gui Minhai was one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers who sold banned tabloid books to customers in mainland China. Gui disappeared during a holiday in Thailand in October 2015. Three months later, he reappeared in China declaring on State media that he voluntarily turned himself in to answer to a drink-driving incident in 2003 for which he was sentenced to two years in prison. After his release in October 2017, however, he was not allowed to leave the country. Gui was born in China but later acquired Swedish citizenship.

On 20 January 2018, Gui Minhai was arrested by plain-clothed security officials while travelling with two Swedish diplomats on a train to Beijing where he was to receive medical treatment. In response, Sweden summoned the Chinese ambassador to Stockholm. When asked about the incident on 23 January 2018, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson suggested that the Swedish diplomats had broken the law, saying: (more…)

Published: 02 February 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 and the subsequent “war on terror”, U.S. President George W. Bush in January 2002 established a detention camp located at the United States Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Over the years, the United States has detained there without trial some 780 persons it considers extremely dangerous terrorists. Several current and former detainees reported abuse and torture. U.S. President Barack Obama unsuccessfully tried to close the detention camp. By 2018, there were still 41 detainees held at Guantánamo.

On 30 January 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced in his State of the Union address that he had decided to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, suggesting that he may even use the facility to house new terrorism suspects for the first time in a decade. On the same day, he signed an Executive Order which provided in part: (more…)

Published: 01 February 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 31 January 2018 the Federal Government submitted a written statement in the case of Yücel v. Turkey before the European Court of Human Rights. Deniz Yücel, a Turkish-German journalist and Turkey correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, was arrested in Turkey on 27 February 2017 on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting public violence, amid a large-scale crackdown on alleged supporters of a failed military coup in Turkey in July 2016. He was kept in pre-trial detention without a formal indictment being filed.

The Federal Government repeatedly called for the release of Deniz Yücel and other German nationals being detained in Turkey for what Germany considered to be “political reasons”. These detentions contributed to a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries throughout 2017. (more…)

Published: 01 February 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 4 January 2018, Iran hanged 18-year-old Amirhossein Pourjafar, who had been sentenced to death in 2016 for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl from Iran’s marginalised Afghan community. He had also been given 74 lashes for mutilating the corpse of the victim. At the time of the crime, he was 16 years old.

On 8 January 2018, the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office issued the following statement:

“I was appalled to hear of the execution of the young Iranian Amirhossein Pourjafar. Amirhossein Pourjafar was only 16 years old at the time of the crimes he is accused of having committed. His death sentence was upheld in appeal proceedings. Amirhossein Pourjafar committed a serious crime, and I express my profound sympathy to the victim’s family.

Nonetheless, the Federal Government is opposed to the death penalty whatever the circumstances. Iran has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which prohibit the execution of individuals who were minors at the time of the offence. At least four people who were minors at the time of the crime were executed in Iran in 2017, and many more are on death row. These executions must stop!

I therefore urgently appeal to all those responsible in Iran to immediately suspend all death penalties and completely stop handing down such sentences to minors.”

(more…)

Published: 28 January 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which resulted in many Palestinians being forced to flee their homeland, the United Nations General Assembly on 8 December 1949 established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestinian refugees in collaboration with local governments. In 2017, UNRWA provided essential services to some 5.3 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including running 700 schools and 140 health clinics. The United States has been UNRWA’s single largest donor for decades. In 2017, the United States contributed more than US$360 million to the UNRWA budget. Germany was the Agency’s second largest State donor contributing some US$ 76 million. Germany has also been a member of the UNRWA Advisory Commission since 2005. (more…)

Published: 26 January 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

With the Syrian civil war entering its seventh year and the Islamic State terrorist organization being largely defeated in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on 13 January 2018 that in the coming days Turkey would start a military operation in Syria’s Afrin region against the “separatist terror organizations”, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in order to “purge terrorism from our southern borders.” The PYD/YPG controlled Afrin, which borders Turkey’s southern Hatay and Kilis provinces, since 2012 when, during the early phase of the Syrian civil war, Syrian government forces were compelled to withdraw from the region. President Erdoğan stated that the Kurdish YPG militia was trying to establish a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border, linking Afrin with a large Kurdish‑controlled area to the east. (more…)

Published: 25 January 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 18 January 2018, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, adopted in the second and final reading the Law of Ukraine “On the Specifics of the State Policy on Ensuring State Sovereignty of Ukraine over the Temporarily Occupied Territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions”. The law declared, inter alia, that the Russian Federation was performing “a criminal act of aggression” against Ukraine and “temporarily occupied” a portion of its territory, governing the Donbas region with the help of an “occupation administration” controlled by Moscow. The law held that the Russian Federation, as occupying power, was responsible for ensuring the protection of the rights of civilians in these areas. The law also stated that Russia was to be held liable for all physical, moral or financial damage inflicted on the State of Ukraine, government authorities and local self-government agencies, individuals and legal entities. Persons participating in the armed aggression of the Russian Federation or being involved in the administration of the Russian occupation were to be held criminally liable for acts that violate the laws of Ukraine and international humanitarian law. (more…)

Published: 22 January 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 22 January 1963, France and Germany concluded the Treaty concerning Franco-German co-operation (the “Elysée Treaty”). The Treaty took the relationship between the two countries to a new level providing for close cooperation in the areas of foreign affairs and defence, as well as education and youth affairs. On the basis of this Treaty, Germany cooperates more closely with France than with any other country.

For example, in the area of foreign affairs the two countries agreed to “consult each other, prior to any decision, on all important questions of foreign policy, and particularly on questions of mutual interest, with a view to achieving as far as possible an analogous position.” (more…)

Published: 12 January 2018 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 8 January 2018, the spokesperson of the Federal Foreign Office confirmed that Iranian Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi had been receiving medical treatment at a private hospital in Germany since 21 December 2017. The spokesperson declared that “due to a serious illness Mr. Shahroudi had sought further treatment in Germany” and that “this request was granted after credible health reasons had been given.”

At the time of his treatment, Ayatollah Shahroudi was the head of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, a body tasked with the resolution of disputes between Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, and a constitutional watchdog known as the Guardian Council. He was also First Deputy Chairman of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body empowered to designate and dismiss the Supreme Leader of Iran. From 1999 to 2009, Ayatollah Shahroudi was the head of Iran’s Judiciary. As head of the judiciary, he appointed all public prosecutors, the provincial heads of the judiciary and the prison wardens across the country. He also determined the composition of the Supreme Court which he also presided over. The Supreme Court decides on the execution of the death penalty. During his time in office, some 2,000 persons had been executed, including minors and persons who had been minors at the time of their crimes. He had also endorsed the amputation of limbs as fair punishment, as well as flogging, stoning, burning at the stake, and the falling from a height without administration of anaesthetics. (more…)