Kunduz airstrike: Germany must answer to the European Court of Human Rights

Strasbourg/Berlin, 26 February 2020 – “Germany must finally take responsibility for the bombing in Kunduz. I am glad that the court is hearing the case about the killing of my two boys. I expect justice – not only for me, but for many other families,” said Abdul Hanan from Afghanistan about today’s hearing before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. Hanan lost two sons, Nesarullah (8) and Abdul Bayan (12), in the airstrike on 4 September 2009 in northeastern Afghanistan, ordered by German colonel Georg Klein.

Due to its extraordinary significance, the case will be argued before the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber. It is based on an individual complaint against Germany which Hanan submitted to the ECtHR in January 2016 with the support of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). The claim: Germany violated Article 2 – protection of life – and Article 13 – right to effective appeal – of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in handling the Kunduz airstrike.

“The German armed forces, federal government and judiciary have tried to cover up the extent and circumstances of the Kunduz bombing,” said Wolfgang Kaleck, ECCHR general secretary, who also represents Hanan in court. “The European Court of Human Rights must clarify two things: one, that Germany’s investigations after the airstrike were insufficient, and two, that Abdul Hanan was not heard before any German court. He was thus denied a fundamental right.”

Hanan had been attempting, in vain, to be heard in court since 2010 – first at the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, then the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, and finally at the German Federal Constitutional Court.

Dapo Akande, professor of international law at Oxford University, and counsel in the proceedings, added, “The European Court of Human Rights should continue its previous case law on applying the European Convention on Human Rights to foreign missions, and not shy away from reviewing the Kunduz airstrike and Germany’s role in it.”

To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck and other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means.

Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.

Maria Bause
T: +49 30 69819797
M: presse@ecchr.eu

Philipp Jedamzik
T: +49 30 29680591
M: presse@ecchr.eu