“For a politics of justice”: IIPM, LeaveNoOneBehind and 80 celebrities from the arts, science and politics address the new Bundestag with an Open Letter

 

A broad action alliance demands justice for migrants and holds European and German politicians legally accountable.

 

More than 80 prominent figures from the arts, academia and politics have signed the “Cologne Declaration for a Politics of Justice and Humanity”, which appears in the TAZ, the Kölner Stadtanzeiger and on the site of the co-producing theatre NTGent one day before the start of the Cologne “School of Resistance”. Among the signatories are Elfriede Jelinek, Carola Rackete, Igor Levit, Andrea Ypsilanti, Robert Menasse, Sasa Stanicic, Ulrike Guérot, Sibylle Berg, Harald Welzer, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, Rahel Jaeggi, Wolfgang Kaleck and Jean Ziegler.

 

“For years, the public was made to believe that the thousands of deaths at the EU’s external borders and the millions of humiliations of illegalised refugees were a tragic event, a kind of natural disaster. But what is happening before our eyes are not just random human rights violations, they are planned crimes structurally embedded in European policies“, the statement reads. “We call on the newly elected German parliament to return to a policy of law and humanity and put an end to the system of dehumanisation, illegalisation and exploitation of refugees.

 

“The “Cologne Declaration” initiated by IIPM, LeaveNoOneBehind, SeaWatch, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights ECCHR, NTGent and medico international is the starting point of the 16th “School of Resistance” on 24 and 25 September at Schauspiel Köln, where Navid Kerman, Mithu Sanyal, Yvan Sagnet and Omer Shatz, among others, are expected to attend. “We need a discourse on the limits and erosion of the current legal system, we need politicians and experts to work together to create the foundations for a system that is truly based on the idea of human rights for all and gives us the means to claim them,” the declaration continues.

 

The “Cologne Declaration” is linked to an extensive crowdfunding campaign: #waveoflegalaction The campaign calls all European and German politicians to account who are directly or indirectly guilty of human rights violations! When injustice becomes right, resistance becomes a duty!

 

Discuss & demonstrate in Cologne or sign our petition and support the work of our lawyers here.

 

The poster of the „Cologne Declaration“ you can download here.