Musings From Abroad

Germany drags Italy to ICJ over WW11 Nazi reparation

Published

3 years ago

May 1, 2022

The German government has dragged Italy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) asking it to halt the sale of German-owned buildings in Rome following announcement by the Italian government that it would soon auctioned off the assets to pay for Nazi war crimes compensation cases.

The German case against Italy which was filed on Friday, is an aftermath of a long-running dispute between the two countries regarding World War II reparations.

It was the second time that the case has been dragged to the ICJ following a similar effort in 2012 where the UN’s top court ruled that Germany couldn’t be sued in foreign courts by victims of Nazi war crimes.

In a filing published by The Hague court late on Friday, Germany argued that domestic courts in Italy had repeatedly violated the ICJ’s 2012 ruling after more than 25 new compensations claims were filed against Germany over damages arising from Nazi atrocities during the war.

In many of those cases, Italian courts have ordered Germany to pay compensation to victims and their families.

Germany is also seeking financial compensation from Italy “for any injury caused through violations of Germany’s right to sovereign immunity,” the filing stated.

Germany further argues in the filing that “Italy has violated, and continues to violate, its obligation to respect Germany’s sovereign immunity by threatening to take the buildings to pay for complaints filed by victims of Nazi crimes.”

Germany and Italy have been locked in a legal dispute over WWII reparations for years with the Germans’ arguement being that it has already paid out billions of euros in compensation for atrocities committed by the Nazi regime since the end of WWII, taking part in extensive reparations and peace treaties with the countries affected.

One of the cases involved a man who was deported to Germany in 1944 and forced to work as an enslaved laborer in a munitions factory while other cases concerned claims brought by the families of nine people who were among those killed by the German military in Civitella, Tuscany, in 1944, where 203 civilians were massacred by the Germans.

The most pressing issue for Germany, according to the filing, is a pending Italian court ruling on whether to force the sale of four of German-owned buildings.

The properties include buildings in Rome that house the local offices of the German Archaeological Institute, the German Historical Institute, the cultural Goethe Institute and the German School of Rome.

While no hearing has been scheduled for the case as rulings in the ICJ typically take years to come through, an Italian court said it would decide on May 25 whether to go ahead with the auction of the buildings.

Related Topics:Featured Germany Italy Nazi World War

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

3 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

6 days ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”