Arenz and Röder v. Germany

Paul Arenz and Thomas and Dagmar Röder v. The Federal Republic of Germany (Communication No.1138/2002) was a case decided by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2004.

Arenz and Röder v. Germany
Court	United Nations Human Rights Committee under the 1st ICCR Optional Protocol
Full case name	Paul Arenz and Thomas and Dagmar Röder v. The Federal Republic of Germany
Started	26 September 2002
Decided	24 March 2004
Session	59
Citation(s)	CCPR/C/80/D/1138/2002 (Communication №1138/2002) A/59/40 v. II (HRC 2004) ¶548 summarized at v. I ¶101
Holding
As the proceedings in Germany were not "arbitrary" nor a "denial of justice", the communication was inadmissible.
Committee membership
Abdelfattah Amor, Nisuke Ando, Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati, Alfredo Castillero Hoyos, Christine Chanet, Franco Depasquale, Maurice Glèlè Ahanhanzo, Walter Kälin, Ahmed Tawfik Khalil, Rafael Rivas Posada, Sir Nigel Rodley, Martin Scheinin, Ivan Shearer, Hipólito Solari Yrigoyen, Ruth Wedgwood, Roman Wieruszewski, and Maxwell Yalden.
Case opinions
For the committee
Opinion in	English, French, and Spanish
Decided in	Geneva, Switzerland
Laws applied
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights § 2, § 5 ¶¶ 2(b) et seq.
Area of law
International law

Facts

In 1991, the Christian Democratic Union declared affiliation with Scientology incompatible with CDU membership. In 1992 and 1994, the applicants were expelled from CDU. Party decisions were upheld by German courts (Para. 2.-3. of the views).

The applicants alleged violations of their rights under articles 2, paragraph 1 (non-discrimination), 18 (freedom of religion), 19 (freedom of expression), 22 (freedom of association), 25 (political participation), 26 (non-discrimination) and 27 (minority rights) of the Covenant (Para. 4.).

HRC views

The committee has rejected Germany's objections that the case was inadmissible due to decisions being taken by a party, not by state (Para. 8.5.).

However, it decided that "8.6. (..) The issue before the Committee is whether the State party violated the authors' rights under the Covenant in that its courts gave priority to the principle of party autonomy, over their wish to be members in a political party that did not accept them due to their membership in another organization of ideological nature. The Committee recalls its constant jurisprudence that it is not a fourth instance competent to reevaluate findings of fact or reevaluate the application of domestic legislation, unless it can be ascertained that the proceedings before the domestic courts were arbitrary or amounted to a denial of justice. (..) the authors have failed to substantiate, for purposes of admissibility, that the conduct of the courts of the State party would have amounted to arbitrariness or a denial of justice. Therefore, the communication is inadmissible"

External links

• HRC views