Because of a decision of the Bundestag against the controversial movement "BDS" (boycott, divestments and sanctions), several UN Special Rapporteurs have intervened after SPIEGEL information at the federal government. In the decision of 17 May this year, the Union, the SPD, the FDP and the Greens called the arguments and methods of the anti-Israeli boycott movement anti-Semitic.
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"We want to express our concern that the resolution sets a worrying trend to disproportionately restrict the freedom of expression, assembly and association," wrote the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on October 18 to Foreign Minister Heiko Maas ( SPD).
The letter was signed by a total of five Special Rapporteurs:
- David Kaye, responsible for the protection of freedom of expression
- Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, responsible for the right of assembly
- Michel Forst, responsible for the situation of human rights activists
- Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967;
- Ahmed Shaheed, responsible for religious freedom
"The decision disproportionately interferes with people's right to political expression in Germany, namely to express support for the BDS movement," the letter said.
Wolfgang Kumm / DPA
Bundestag, May 17, 2019: The vote after the debate on the BDS movement
The UN representatives are also asking for a passage that the Greens and Social Democrats in particular would have liked to include in the resolution. The passage expressly rejected criticism of Israeli policy from the charge of anti-Semitism. "Critical treatment of Israeli government policy is protected from freedom of expression, the press and expression," the passage said, which was not included in the resolution.
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The UN Special Rapporteurs urge the Federal Government in a letter to Minister Maas to declare within 60 days what legal implications the Bundestag resolution has and how it is compatible with Germany's obligations to protect international human rights. In addition, the government should explain how it ensures that BDS activists can name human rights violations "without undue restrictions". The authors refer to court decisions in Cologne and Munich as encouraging, in which pro-BDS groups had sued successfully against restrictions.
Additional personal statement submitted
The Foreign Office has not yet answered the letter. Above all, the foreign politicians of the Union, SPD and Greens had distanced themselves in the vote in the Bundestag, while they voted for the resolution, but at the same time gave personal explanations to protocol. They feared difficulties for cooperation between German foundations and Palestinian organizations. Nonetheless, there was a broad consensus in the Bundestag that the BDS movement had anti-Semitic traits because it demonized everything Israeli and made no distinction between Israel and the occupied territories.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva is a supranational UN agency for the protection and protection of human rights. She advises and reports to the UN Secretary-General.
The High Commissariat is not an intergovernmental organization such as the UN Human Rights Council. It is subordinate to the UN General Assembly of the Member States and consists of delegates from the various groups of countries who change regularly. As a result, countries that are themselves known for serious human rights violations repeatedly chair or ally with one another in order, for example, to criticize Israel disproportionately and to distract them from their own human rights violations.
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