DISCRIMINATION According to Reporters without Borders, In May, the Federal Ministry of the Interior journalists were not sufficiently protected by reported a 19% rise in hate crimes compared the police when reporting on demonstrations. with the previous year. The organization reported dozens of cases of In the same month, the government journalists who had been physically attacked adopted a package of 89 measures against and verbally abused at protests, especially racist crimes. While the measures provided those against Covid-19 measures. more support for civil society, they fell short RIGHT TO TRUTH, JUSTICE AND of addressing institutional racism and of REPARATION setting out an overall strategy against racist violence. In February, the Koblenz Higher Regional Accountability for discriminatory abuses by Court convicted one of the two defendants in police continued to be hampered by the lack the first criminal trial addressing violations by of an independent complaints mechanism to officials of the Syrian General Intelligence effectively investigate allegations at the Directorate. The defendant was sentenced to federal and state levels, as well as the police four and a half years in prison for his role in in six federal states and at the federal level acts of torture and deprivation of liberty. The not being required to wear identification trial of the main defendant was continuing at badges. the end of the year. LGBTI PEOPLE In March, the federal government adopted an REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS LGBTI inclusion strategy that had been In violation of the principle of non- developed in close cooperation with civil refoulement (forcible return), 167 men were society organizations and aims to integrate deported to Afghanistan before deportations the protection of the human rights of LGBTI were temporarily suspended on 11 August. people into foreign policy and development Following the Taliban seizure of power in cooperation. Afghanistan in August, the federal In May, the law to protect children born with government promised humanitarian visas for variations of sex characteristics came into 2,600 of the most vulnerable Afghans and force. Although the law tackled human rights their family members in September. The new violations against intersex people concerning government announced a humanitarian unnecessary medical procedures, it failed to admission programme for Afghans. introduce further measures to end the Under the EU voluntary humanitarian pathologization of intersex people and to admission scheme of the EU-Turkey include reparations for people who statement, 2,192 Syrian refugees arrived and underwent unnecessary and irreversible at least 2,211 refugees were resettled under medical treatment. the UNHCR resettlement programme. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY Delays in family reunification procedures raised concerns regarding the right to family In December, the parliament of the federal life. Applicants from Afghanistan, Eritrea and state of North Rhine-Westphalia adopted a Syria waited for more than a year to receive law that disproportionately restricted the right their first appointment at German embassies to freedom of peaceful assembly by imposing to start the procedure to reunite with their a series of administrative requirements and family members in Germany. unduly extending state surveillance and RIGHT TO PRIVACY control powers, for example through the setting up of checkpoints. It also provided for In March, the Act on the Federal Intelligence criminal penalties for organizers who failed to Service was amended following a 2020 submit prior notification, with the exception of Federal Constitutional Court ruling. The spontaneous assemblies. revised Act allows for mass surveillance of Amnesty International Report 2021/22 175