22,208
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
wikify
==Apparent violations of the Basic Law==
The first section of the Basic Law essentially is a Bill of Rights that annunciates and guarantees basic rights. It has nineteen articles that enunciate various [[human rights ]] of the inhabitants of Germany.
===Article One===
Some have argued that [[Art. 6 GG| Article Six]] when combined with [[Art. 140 GG| Article 140]] provides a right for parents to order the non-therapeutic circumcision of boys. Article Six, paragraph three, clearly indicates that parents have responsibilities and duties to their children. This would include protection of the rights of the child. Article 140 incorporates Section III: Religion and Religious Associations of the [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Weimar_constitution Weimar Constitution of 1919] into the Basic Law. There is nothing in it that suggests that parents have a right to violate the rights of their children.
[[Parental rights]] are counterbalanced by the rights of the child under the ''Grundgesetz'', which are discussed above. Parents have a right and a duty to respect and protect their child's [[human rights]].
Article 33 of the ''Grundgesetz'' gives the federal government of Germany full responsibility for foreign relations. Germany signed the ''[[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]]'' (1966) on 9 October 1968. The [[ICCPR]] was ratified on 17 December 1973. It entered into force on 23 March 1976.
By this treaty, Germany contracted "to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."<ref>[[ICCPR]], Article 9(1).</ref>
International [[human rights ]] law is now laid over the [[human rights ]] in the ''Grundgesetz''.
The treaty provides numerous [[human rights]] that prohibit non-therapeutic male circumcision. Moreover, it provides the right of state-parties impose such "limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others."<ref>[[ICCPR]], Article 18(3).</ref> Germany has a duty to impose such a limit to protect male children from medically-unnecessary, non-therapeutic circumcision. Germany, by enactment of the circumcision law, has failed its treaty obligations.