The organization reiterated its criticism of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. “The military operation of the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip has lost all measure,” emphasized Duchrow. “It involves numerous war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law,” she said.
However, the federal government refuses to “name the Israeli army’s war crimes.” “Instead, it increasingly supplied weapons,” explained Duchrow. With regard to the Middle East conflict, Amnesty accuses the German government of “applying double standards”. This also harms international human rights standards.
The organization also criticized interference with freedom of assembly in connection with the Middle East conflict. Numerous solidarity events in favor of the Palestinians were banned as a preventative measure. “There were media reports of unnecessary and excessive use of force by police, hundreds of arrests and increased racial profiling of people perceived to be Arab or Muslim,” the annual report said.
The report also criticizes Germany for not adequately protecting migrants from acts of violence. “Germany does not sufficiently recognize structural racism and does too little to protect people from hate crimes,” said Duchrow. Attacks and politically motivated crimes, including insults and attacks on those seeking protection and refugee accommodation, would have increased further in 2023 compared to the previous year.
In addition, Germany has brought out “very heavy artillery” with regard to climate activists, said Duchrow. She cited several weeks of preventive detention and investigations into criminal associations as examples. “This is an attack on the right to peaceful protest,” she said.
Amnesty also denounced the fact that abortion is still criminalized in Germany, “and has been since imperial times.” The organization emphasized that abortions should be regulated outside the criminal code.
