24.01.2023

Analysing Human Rights in Germany

Vote for Human Rights: one of the working areas of FMR is about elections, such as in 2021 when Germany elected their new federal government. Foto: Sabine Hübner, UEM

The 50 organizations within FMR are working on a diverse range of topics. Here they meet especially for human rights. Foto: Sabine Hübner, UEM

From January 19 to 21, the German Forum Human Rights (FMR) held its annual conference in Wuppertal on Human Rights in Germany and worldwide: In this Forum, more than 50 societies are engaged for a more holistic and consequential protection of human rights, globally and in Germany. During this conference they assessed the current situation and worked on strategies to move forward in the new year.

The Social Democratic Party, the Liberal and the Green Party are in charge for more than a year now. The Forum looked closely at how human rights situations have changed since, and how shortcomings of the government might have to be addressed by the organizations involved.

The war against Ukraine has hit many people hard and affected their human rights, both within Ukraine and taking refuge in other countries. At the same time, populism across democratic countries remains to be an issue for the members of the FMR, as well as social security in times of rising energy prices. The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2023 will be an important date in the upcoming year.

For UEM, the Forum Human Rights is an important place of exchange. Here, topics that concern UEM members in all three continents are connected with specific concerns of other German organizations. Jochen Motte points to the relevance of a foreign policy that takes Human Rights into account: “A security strategy that makes human rights a criterion must have implications for a humane refugee policy, and for the design of economic relations with countries of the Global South.” He is Executive Secretary of the Department for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, UEM Deputy General Secretary and representative of the UEM in the Forum.

UEM is looking forward to the conferences and actions conducted by Forum Human Rights in 2023.