Does the “right to life and physical integrity” guaranteed in Article 2 of Germany’s also apply when people are killed far away from Germany by another state with at least indirect German assistance? The , the equivalent to the US Supreme Court, was tasked with .
The case was brought by two men whose relatives were killed in a targeted US drone strike in Yemen in 2012. The technical infrastructure of the US air base in Ramstein was also used in the strike. In this specific case, the lawsuit was dismissed as unfounded.
German foreign and security policy also at stake
However, the ruling is not a complete carte blanche for potentially lethal drone missions in the future. According to the court’s official reasoning, Germany must also protect fundamental human rights and the core norms of international humanitarian law abroad. However, the court also granted the federal government considerable leeway to determine its foreign and security policy.
The mandate now announced is subject to two conditions: A sufficient connection to German state authority and the serious risk that international law could be systematically violated.
According to the Constitutional Court, this was not the case with the drone strikes in Yemen. The court ruled that the US took sufficient account of the protection of civilians in its fight against international terrorism, and referred to “legitimate military targets.”
Attack in Yemen killed civilians
However, innocent people were killed alongside the suspected terrorists in the attack controlled from Ramstein, which brought criticism from legal scholar Paulina Starski of the University of Freiburg on the TV channel Phoenix: “If they don’t know exactly who they are attacking, they have to assume that it is a civilian.” That is why targeted killings carried out by state actors are often highly problematic from a humanitarian and international law perspective.
Why Ramstein is so important to the US
If the US Air Force could guide its missiles remotely from US territory straight to their targets, it would not need logistical support from its Ramstein airbase. But direct radio links between the US and Yemen are not possible, due to the curvature of the Earth. This is why signals are redirected via Ramstein, which makes the base indispensable for attacks in the Middle East. And they are very simple: A drone pilot sits in Florida, connected to the Ramstein hub via fiberoptic cables, guiding the deadly weapon to its target.
Plaintiffs disappointed, federal government relieved
The lawyer representing the unsuccessful plaintiffs from Yemen, Andreas Schüller, called the Constitutional Court’s decision painful and disappointing.
But he added that the duty to protect now formulated also provides guidelines for future conflicts: “Following today’s ruling, there may be situations in which violations of human rights and international law abroad are brought before German courts.”
The federal government reacted with relief. State Secretary Nils Schmid of the Ministry of Defense emphasized that compliance with international law was always a priority. At the same time, he said, the ruling gave German security policy “the necessary leeway” to be a reliable ally.
This article was originally written in German.
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