Facts / Backgrounds International documents Hague Convention respecting the laws and customs or war on land of 18.10.1907 Art. 45 It is forbidden to compel the inhabitants of occupied territory to swear allegiance to the hostile Power. Art. 46 Family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property as well as religious convictions and practices must be respected. - Private property may not be confiscated. Art. 50 No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which the population cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible. Charter of the Nurmemberg International Military Tribunal of 8.8.1945 ... Art. 6 ... The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility: (b)War Crimes: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation for slave labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; (c) Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated. (Herbert Michaelis/Ernst Schraepler [Hrsg.]: Ursachen und Folgen, Bd. 24: Deutschland unter dem Besatzungsregime, Berlin o.J., S. 399) Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10.12.1948 Art. 7 All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Art. 9 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Art.17 (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. (Berber, aaO, S. 150 ff.) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9.12.1948 ... Art. II In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Art. III The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. (Berber aaO, S. 156 f.) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 19.12.1966 Art. 12 (1) Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. (2) Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own. (4) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country. (Auswärtiges Amt [Hrsg.]: Menschenrechte in der Welt, Bonn 5 1983, S. 39) Resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Commission of 17.4.1998 Art. 4 1. Every human being shall have the right to live in his place of residence, home country and country in peace, security and dignity. 2. No one may be forced to leave his place of residence. Art. 5 Settlement of an occupied or disputed area by the occupying power or the power de facto controlling it with parts of its own population, be it by transfer or incentive, shall be illicit. Art. 6 Any practice or policy which has the objective or the effect of changing the demographic composition of a region in which a national, ethnic, linguistic or other minority or an autochthonous population has settled, be it by displacement, resettlement and/or the settlement of settlers or a combination thereof, shall be illicit. Art. 7 Transfers or exchanges of populations may not be legalized by international agreements ... if they breach fundamental directives of human rights or cogent standards of international law. Art. 8 Every person shall have the right to return to the country of his origin and, within the same, to the place of his origin or of his free choice in a free decision and in security and dignity. The exercise of a right of return shall not rule out the victim's right to suitable compensation ... (Refugee Survey Quarterly, Nr. 3, 16 (1997), S. 141-143) Conclusions of the meeting of the European Council of Heads of State and Government in Copenhagen on 22.6.1993 "...The European Council today agreed that the associated countries in central and eastern Europe that so desire shall become members of the European Union. Accession will take place as soon as an associated country is able to assume the obligations of membership by satisfying the economic and political conditions required. Membership requires that the candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities...." (Europa-Archiv 1993, S. D 263 f.) Treaty of Amsterdam Art. J. 1 (1) The Union shall define and implement a common foreign and security policy covering all areas of foreign and security policy, the objectives of which shall be: to safeguard common values ... in conformity with the principles of the United Nations Charter ... to develop and to consolidate democracy and the rule of law, and respect for human right and fundamental freedoms. (BT-Drs. 13/9339) The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, proclaimed in Nice on 7 December 2000 (2000/C 364/01) ... Art. 5 Prohibition of slavery and forced labour (1) No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. (2) Nobody shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. (3) Trafficking in human beings is forbidden. ... Art. 19 Protection in the event of removal, displacement or extradition (1) Collective displacements are prohibited. (2) No one may be removed, displaced or extradited to a state where there is a serious risk that he would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.