More Attention Needed

Günter Nooke has been the German government's commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid since March 2006. He is a member of Chancellor Angel Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and a member of Deutsche Welle's broadcasting board.

Deutsche Welle: The human rights situation is very unstable in many parts of the world. When did you last get the feeling that your agency was able to achieve something?

Günter Nooke: Human rights violations do not get much attention in Germany and the western world. When one travels somewhere and gives the human rights activists there the feeling that they are being heard, that they will be greeted in a German residence with the necessary protection, that they know that they are not alone in their fight -- that is something. Whether they are fighting against poverty or promoting democracy, a little verbal acknowledgement can help support some smaller projects on the ground. That is something I think works well.

I also think that the German human rights commissioner should be part of a foreign policy debate here in Germany about our strategic interests. Human rights are a far-sighted, practical policy ideal that is very much in the interest of Germany and Europe. Therefore, I think it would be helpful if we were to learn a little bit more about where we send our money and not just complain about it. And we should say that it is perhaps in our best long-term interests to send more money because as freedom and democracy spread, our economic interests will be preserved.

You just returned home from Africa. Did you see anything concrete where you said to yourself, "I really made an impact here?"

I visited a military prison in Guinea with a woman from an NGO. No one knows many of the prisoners there and some just die without ever going to trial. An officer came out and said that if the woman were to come back next week then she could meet with the boss to discuss her concerns. Perhaps then they can talk about how they can improve the prisoners' living conditions, medical care or even to help them build a garden. This is just one example of how a simple visit from a diplomat can cause some movement in a seemingly closed dictatorial system like in Guinea.

What can be done to improve the human rights situation in Congo?

Congo is a very sad situation, especially the situation in the east of the country near the Rwandan border. I really think that it was very important that we passed a resolution [at the United Nations] in New York that the mass raping of women cannot be a part of a military, strategic, systematic means of torture.

Eastern Congo is probably the worst example in the world right now where such things are being perpetrated by different political groups. Security personnel, the army and even the police are taking part as well as Hutu and Tutsi militia and other rebel groups in the jungle. I do not think that we can even conceive of what is happening in these areas.

In February, I met a woman in eastern Congo who told me that women are given their own children to eat and that such cannibalism is used not just to violate or to humiliate the women but to devastate them. These actions absolutely destroy our very understanding of human dignity, of human rights. It has got so bad that we cannot just sit back and watch. The United Nations must use its mandate to do what it can because we simply cannot continue to bear what is happening on the ground. Failure to do so would discredit our foreign policy and other international bodies.

Why do countries that suppress press freedoms, like Ethiopia, receive development aid from Germany?

We just had a hearing in the Bundestag [Germany's lower house of parliament] about how much development aid will be tied to human rights. As the federal human rights commissioner, I will say that each country should be discussed separately and that human right should be a condition to development aid. But of course it is not easy to attach sanctions when they may only hurt the people and not the government. Therefore there is only one consideration as to how we can better distribute our aid, which is to make sure that our money is truly reaching the people on the ground.

Perhaps that means a larger number of smaller projects as opposed to bigger projects that are implemented by the central or provincial government. Unfortunately, we recognize that most African countries are not getting less corrupt. I think that projects with a timetable of three to four years are too short. In terms of Africa, we need to plan our projects in decades and clarify the accountability so that we can credibly determine if the money we are giving out is not going to the wrong hands.

Let us turn to Burma. This country has moved back into focus because of the recent demonstrations. Now that things have calmed down, are people already forgetting about this country again?

I hope that the focus has not shifted away from Burma, but that the pressure on the military Junta continues. We here in the western world have our function, but the regional powers such as China and India are even more important in continuing to apply the pressure.

Burma should not be forgotten but be seen as an example that human rights are not tied to a certain religion or culture but that these ideals are universal and indivisible.

People around the world can easily determine if human rights conditions are in the right or in the wrong. For some to decide that they can simply sidestep one's right to live and to survive in my judgment is wrong. That is what happened in Burma, and that is why it is such an important place where change needs to take place.

How do you view the upcoming elections in Russia?

Russia is an example of how societies can also move backwards when it comes to human rights and the situation has gotten noticeably worse in the past years. The Kremlin has cracked down on the media in order to control the flow of information and discredit the citizens who are pushing for greater freedoms and political rights.

The chess player Garry Kasparov is very famous in Russia. The western world knows him now as a politician, but he has rarely been seen as such in the Russian media. Whoever Putin, Gazprom and the other big interests in Russia put forth as their candidate will become president in the coming months. But first we have to see how the parliamentary elections unfold.

An important topic for Deutsche Welle, especially in central and southeastern Europe, is the way countries deal with their communist past and the legacy of the secret police. The East German Stasi [secret police] archive is often offered as a model. How important is the archive in your opinion and what do you see for its future?

I see our way of dealing with the GDR's secret police archive as a model for the simple reason that is was not destroyed and is more or less now open to the public. This archive tells the day-to-day story of a society that existed for 40 years. It not just an archive of the atrocities of the GDR, it is not just an archive of denunciations or a place where we can find out if someone worked with the Stasi, it is the daily journal of a culture. I hope that more access to these files will be allowed and that this will happen independently from any political motives.