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The German Federal Constitutional Court on Tuesday dismissed a constitutional complaint brought by two Yemeni citizens regarding the United States’ use of a German air base to deploy drones.
The Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest court, delivered the judgment in the decade-long case. Before the court, plaintiffs had challenged the decisions of previous courts, arguing that the Federal Republic of Germany violated their “right to life and physical integrity” as denoted in Article 2(2) of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the Constitution of Germany. They asserted the government had violated a duty of protection that extended to foreign citizens living abroad.
The court found the government has a general mandate to protect fundamental human rights and the central principles of international humanitarian law, including in cases involving foreign countries. However, two conditions must be met for a concrete duty of protection to exist. Namely, there must be a “sufficient connection to German state power” and “serious risk of a systematic violation” of relevant international law.
In a statement, plaintiffs noted they pursued this case not only to seek justice for personal relatives killed by US drone strikes, but also for innocent victims of missile strikes around the world. They wrote, “This is a dangerous and disturbing ruling that suggests countries that provide assistance to the US assassination programme bear no responsibility where civilians are killed.”
The plaintiffs, Yemeni citizens, Ahmed and Khaled bin Ali Jaber, initially brought their case before the Cologne Administrative Court in 2014 after two of their close relatives were killed in a US drone attack in their home village of Khashamir in August 2012.
The case concerned the use of Ramstein Air Base, a military airfield used by US armed forces, located in Rhineland-Palatinate, a German state. US armed forces constructed a satellite relay station on the air base to be used in part for the deployment of armed drones in foreign countries.
Although the case was dismissed, the plaintiffs were partially successful on previous appeal in the Higher Administrative Court, which found that the government of Germany must act to ensure the use of the Ramstein Air Base by the US for drone operations in Yemen occurs in compliance with public international law. The Federal Administrative Court overturned this decision.
Andreas Schüller, co-director of the International Crimes and Accountability program at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights stated, “This ruling finds no danger for those affected in recent years, but it leaves the door open for future cases. Violations of international law can be subject to judicial review, even if the court imposes high hurdles. This is an important statement by the Federal Constitutional Court in these times.”
The post Germany top court dismisses case challenging US use of air base for drone attacks appeared first on JURIST - News.
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The Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest court, delivered the judgment in the decade-long case. Before the court, plaintiffs had challenged the decisions of previous courts, arguing that the Federal Republic of Germany violated their “right to life and physical integrity” as denoted in Article 2(2) of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the Constitution of Germany. They asserted the government had violated a duty of protection that extended to foreign citizens living abroad.
The court found the government has a general mandate to protect fundamental human rights and the central principles of international humanitarian law, including in cases involving foreign countries. However, two conditions must be met for a concrete duty of protection to exist. Namely, there must be a “sufficient connection to German state power” and “serious risk of a systematic violation” of relevant international law.
In a statement, plaintiffs noted they pursued this case not only to seek justice for personal relatives killed by US drone strikes, but also for innocent victims of missile strikes around the world. They wrote, “This is a dangerous and disturbing ruling that suggests countries that provide assistance to the US assassination programme bear no responsibility where civilians are killed.”
The plaintiffs, Yemeni citizens, Ahmed and Khaled bin Ali Jaber, initially brought their case before the Cologne Administrative Court in 2014 after two of their close relatives were killed in a US drone attack in their home village of Khashamir in August 2012.
The case concerned the use of Ramstein Air Base, a military airfield used by US armed forces, located in Rhineland-Palatinate, a German state. US armed forces constructed a satellite relay station on the air base to be used in part for the deployment of armed drones in foreign countries.
Although the case was dismissed, the plaintiffs were partially successful on previous appeal in the Higher Administrative Court, which found that the government of Germany must act to ensure the use of the Ramstein Air Base by the US for drone operations in Yemen occurs in compliance with public international law. The Federal Administrative Court overturned this decision.
Andreas Schüller, co-director of the International Crimes and Accountability program at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights stated, “This ruling finds no danger for those affected in recent years, but it leaves the door open for future cases. Violations of international law can be subject to judicial review, even if the court imposes high hurdles. This is an important statement by the Federal Constitutional Court in these times.”
The post Germany top court dismisses case challenging US use of air base for drone attacks appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.