One major area in which human rights have certainly come under pressure in recent years is security policy. This is a global phenomenon which includes Europe and Germany. The German Institute for Human Rights therefore paid special attention in 2008 to those security policy developments in Germany and Europe which threaten to diminish the value placed on rights to freedom. People often lose sight of the fact that there are human rights concerns behind apparently "technical" concepts such as data protection. The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights therefore marked a welcome occasion for reflecting in concrete terms on the conditions people need to live their lives in dignity and liberty, including in the light of current security policy developments.
Editor: German Institute for Human Rights
Annual Report
ISSN: 1869-0564
48 p.
(PDF, 1,8 MB, not barrier-free)
August 2009
Author: Jeannette Böhme
Study
ISBN: 978-3-937714-73-8
56 p.
(PDF, 414 KB, not barrier-free)
October 2008
With Germany holding the EU Presidency in the first half of the year, one of the main issues for the German Institute for Human Rights in 2007 was the human rights policy of the European Union. At the end of 2006 the Institute made recommendations to the German government about how to use its presidency to strengthen the human rights dimension of EU policy. These related to the EU's system of fundamental rights and to various policy fields such as data protection in internal security, guarding the EU's external borders, immigration and asylum, and the European Security and Defence Policy. At the end of 2007 the Institute took on the reporting function for Germany for the new EU Agency for Fundamental Rights that was founded in March 2007.
ISBN: 978-3-937714-67-7
44 p.
(PDF, 429 KB, not barrier-free)
February 2008
The Institute's summer 2006 lecture series "Slavery Today" marked the opening of a new priority area. It focuses on human rights tools with which to combat human trafficking, forced marriages and extreme forms of exploitation of labour. Great public attention was awarded to our study of the social human rights of elderly people under care (Soziale Menschenrechte älterer Personen in Pflege) which addressed structural and human rights deficits. The public presentation of the study set the stage for a series of consultations with representatives of politics, associations and science.
43 p.
(PDF, 752 KB, not barrier-free)
July 2007
The promotion and protection of human rights is one of the primordial objectives of the foreign policy of the European Union – and thus of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). It is a guiding principle for military operations of the European Union; and with the strengthening of civil-military co-operation and the development of purely civil instruments for crisis management human rights protection should and will rise in importance for crisis management operations of the European Union. The study examines the role human rights protection plays today in ESDP operations. It comes to the conclusion that from a normative perspective, a solid set of human rights rules and guidelines for ESDP have been developed. In practice, though, the integration of human rights components or human rights advisors as well as gender advisors in the ESDP missions has only just begun. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for strengthening human rights as an element of the ESDP.
Authors: Jana Arloth, Frauke Seidensticker
ISBN: 978-3-937714-45-5 (PDF)
67 p.
(PDF, 373 KB, not barrier-free)
April 2007
In 2005 the Institute continued its campaign for a German signature and ratification of the Option Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Institute held a conference and conducted numerous talks, on the federal as well as the individual states level, in order to promote this prevention oriented human rights instrument. The Institute also participated in the discussion on German anti-discrimination legislation triggered by the public presentation of a draft law in December 2004. In the face of an emotional and partly polemical public debate, the Institute emphasized the daily reality of discrimination in Germany and pointed out that human rights obligations cover combating discrimination by private actors, too.
ISBN: 3-937714-25-1
42 p.
(PDF, 775 KB, not barrier-free)
August 2006
This publication is a shortened version of the study "Internationale Terrorismusbekämpfung und Menschenrechte. Entwicklungen 2003/2004" (The International Fight against Terrorism and the Protection of Human Rights). The English version takes into account two new reports that came out after the publication of the original German version in August 2004. It focuses on the question of how governments can thwart terrorism and terrorists, actual as well as putative, and on control measures that might prevent the violation of human rights. It also looks at German military operations abroad and formulates recommendations for the German government and parliament. The study is intended for persons interested in this subject who work in politics, academia and the media and, not least, for the general public.
Authors: Wolfgang S. Heinz, Jan-Michael Arend
ISBN: 3-937714-07-3
(PDF, 253 KB, not barrier-free)
August 2005
In 2004 the institute placed great emphasis on a number of themes: By incessantly speaking out in favour of signing and ratifying the additional protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture, the institute lends its support to the prevention of torture and the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of people. At the same time, it also bolsters an international mechanism of prevention that can only produce tangible results once a sufficient number of signatories have ratified it. The institute's statements on the question of headscarves worn by Muslim women served to make the domestic debate more objective by adding a human rights perspective. The second half of the year was largely dominated by events organized in connection with the Concluding Observations on Germany of four United Nations treaty bodies on human rights, as well as by events in connection with the Third Report on Germany of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance.
(PDF, 789 KB, not barrier-free)
Promotion of the implementation mechanisms of international human rights treaties, human rights dialogue with Islamic countries, human rights protection in a situation of increasing national and international security measures: these are but some of the activities of the German Institute for Human Rights in the year 2003. Publications and conferences organised by the Institute contributed to the development of strategies in human rights work in Germany and also informed experts and the general public about current issues including background information. Overall the Institute played an important part in promoting human rights education in Germany.
32 p.
(PDF, 1,14 MB, not barrier-free)
August 2004
Authors: Jochen Motte, Wolfgang S. Heinz
(PDF, 365 KB, not barrier-free)
January 2004
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