Dear Committee Members
Thank you for this opportunity to set out Human Rights Watch's key concerns on Germany's socioeconomic rights record at this early stage of your review.
Our main request to the Committee is to seek urgent clarification from the state party as to how it believes its "basic" social security support - when taken together with other forms of support, including housing allowance for example - is sufficient to guarantee the right to an adequate standard of living.
Our research has shown that so-called "working-age" benefits (factoring in housing costs) as well as basic pensions even with pension supplements, can leave households well short of the "at risk of poverty" threshold.
The German government's response to our findings has been to insist that the levels of support provided under the current Citizen's Income scheme and through the basic pension and pension supplement meet a threshold and obligation under Germany's constitution to ensure a minimum subsistence level (the Existenzminimum principle).
Yet the stark reality that we have documented is that people receiving "basic" social security support regularly cannot afford the essentials such as heating and food. Research by others has also assessed the current Citizen's Income as falling short of the requirements of Article 11 of the Covenant.
It is therefore doubly worrying that Germany's Chancellor has proposed to cut €5 billion in social security spending annually, and governing coalition politicians have said they plan to withhold benefits entirely from people who fail to comply with conditions for receiving social security payments.
We urge the Committee, in addition to asking about adequacy, to also seek clarification from the state party as to how such proposals would not amount to retrogression.
Our full briefing sets out in greater detail our deeper concerns with the German social security system, with particular attention to gender inequality, as well as concerns relating to incomplete acceptance of European Social Charter protections, international cooperation on taxation, and supply chain legislation. We take this opportunity to endorse key points made by partner organizations including the joint submissions led by the National Poverty Conference, the Human Rights Forum, FIAN, and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte.
One further issue Human Rights Watch has highlighted in our briefing - which may be of additional interest to the Committee - is the right of access to cultural artefacts and human remains/Ancestors from the German colonial era as per article 15(1)(a).
Germany extracted cultural belongings and human remains during its colonial era, yet restitution efforts have been minimal, often framed as voluntary and excluding affected communities. The state party has only acknowledged an "ethical" responsibility, lacking a comprehensive legal and reparative approach that ensures meaningful participation of Indigenous and affected communities.
Human Rights Watch urges the Committee to press the state party to adopt binding, rights-based measures to ensure restitution of colonial-era cultural belongings and repatriation of human remains/Ancestors.
Thank you for having taken the time to consider our suggestions.
