Federal Constitutional Court: Lawsuit of Ramstein unsuccessful: Obligation to protect only in individual cases

According to a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany also has a general protection mandate to foreigners abroad when it comes to fundamental human rights and international law. Under certain conditions, this could become a specific obligation to protect from this, found the highest German court in Karlsruhe. The verdict is “a step over the previous case law of the Federal Constitutional Court,” said presiding judge Doris König. (Az. 2 BvR 508/21)

With a view to US drone inserts, which are technically controlled via the Air Base Ramstein in the Palatinate, the second Senate did not consider these conditions to be fulfilled. A constitutional complaint was unsuccessful.

Conditions for Germany’s intervention

On the one hand, there must be a sufficient connection to the state authority of the Federal Republic, König explained the conditions. Second, there must be a serious risk of systematic violation of applicable international law. This must be checked for the individual case.

In the case of the drone operations, the court sees no such danger “as a prerequisite for a compression of the general protection mandate for a concrete obligation to protect against the complainants,” said König. “In particular, it was not possible to determine that the United States in the non -international conflict in Yemen uses unacceptable criteria to delimit legitimate military goals of protected civilians.” The Senate left open whether the connection to German state power is sufficient due to the technology used in Ramstein.

Fatal incident in Yemen

The background is the constitutional complaint of two Yemenites. The German judiciary has been employing its case for more than ten years.

In August 2012, two men in Yemen died through a US drone attack. They were killed at a meeting with three alleged members of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. According to the complainants, those killed were a police officer and a clergyman who had preached against Al Qaeda in the region.

Two relatives, Yemeni nationals have complained in Germany since 2014 and recently submitted constitutional complaints in Karlsruhe. They referred to the right to life and physical integrity stipulated in the Basic Law. The plaintiffs also see the federal government as responsible because the Ramstein military base in Rhineland-Palatinate plays an important role.

The American armed forces had informed the Federal Ministry of Defense in 2010 that a satellite relay station for controlling even weapon-capable drones would be built abroad on the site in Ramstein. According to court, the ministry saw no concerns.

Courts in Germany decide differently: The Higher Administrative Court of Münster sentenced the Federal Republic of 2019 to actively investigate whether the United States drone operations in Yemen, using the military base, violating international law. The Federal Administrative Court received this decision the following year.

It was not enough for him that Ramstein was technically important for the US drone program. The Federal Administrative Court argued that concrete decisions would have to take place on German soil so that Germany’s fundamental rights would also apply to foreigners abroad.

The plaintiffs continue to see “threat to their life”

A central question was whether and under what circumstances Germany is obliged to protect people living abroad without German citizenship. The Federal Government denied such an obligation to protect in the present case. Among other things, there is no qualified connection to the domestic.

To use the Air Base, the United States was declared in a “continuous and trusting dialogue” with the United States, the Ministry of Defense in December. “The Federal Government has repeatedly obtained the insurance company that operations from unmanned aircraft from Germany do not start, controlled or commanded, and that the US forces comply with their activities.”

From the plaintiff’s point of view, this is not enough. “Without Ramstein, the number of drones could not take place in the number,” lawyer Andreas Schüller from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which supports the complainants, said. The US armed forces used the base as a hub in the global drone program. “All data to the drones and runs back from the drones via Ramstein. In order to be able to control this in real time, the USA is required.”

The complainants continued to live in Yemen, where there were continuously drone accommodation and always attacks. This is not a condition in which they could and wanted to live, said Schüller. “It is a permanent psychological threat, a threat to your life.”