At its Human Rights meeting on 3-5 December, the Committee of Ministers ended its supervision of the execution of the Basu v. Germany judgment which concerns the authorities’ failure to ascertain through an independent body that an effective investigation is carried out by the State authorities into the applicant’s arguable allegation of racial profiling during an identity check by the federal police in 2012 (violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8).
Following changes in the domestic courts’ case law, including the Federal Administrative Court, it is clear that administrative courts in Germany now are in principle obliged to hear arguable allegations of racial profiling during identity checks by police on the merits. The Committee was therefore reassured that similar violations will be prevented in the future, given that a Convention compliant investigation of such allegations will be carried out by an independent body (the administrative courts). In addition, in March 2024, the authorities also created a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Federal Police Authorities. This fully independent body is entitled to investigate arguable allegations of racial profiling during identity checks.
