Joint Communication of Special Rapporteurs of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Communication to the Governments of Germany and Namibia on the alleged lack of meaningful participation of the OvaHerero and Nama in the negotiations leading to the initialling of the Joint Declaration of 15 May 2021 by Germany and Namibia.
Ref.: AL DEU 1/2023 (to the German Government) and
Ref.: AL NAM 1/2023 (to the Namibian Government).
The two documents dated 23 February 2023 have largely the same text, but differ in some sections.
“Excellency,
We have the honour to address you in our capacities as Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence; Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 45/10, 46/9, 44/5, 43/14, 51/16, 43/36 and 50/7.
In this connection, we would like to bring to the attention of your Excellency’s Government information we have received concerning the alleged lack of meaningful participation, through self-elected representatives, of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples in the negotiations leading to the issuance of the “Joint Declaration by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Namibia: United in remembrance of our colonial past, united in our will to reconcile, united in our vision of the future”, as well as the lack of effective reparative measures afforded to them, including an unqualified recognition of the genocide committed against these communities in the former German Southwest Africa colony between 1904 and 1908.
(…)”
- Document of the Joint Communication of Special Rapporteurs of OHCHR to the German Government as PDF. Source: Website of the United Nations (checked in December 2023)
- Document of the Joint Communication of Special Rapporteurs of OHCHR to the Namibian Government as PDF. Source: Website of the United Nations (checked in December 2023)
- Also see the response of the Namibian Government of 30 May 2023 and the response of the German Government of 1 June 2023.