Rally against U.S./NATO Nuclear Weapons in Karlsruhe, Germany

Part 1:

Wake up Justice!

Protest in front of the Federal Constitutional Court

Germany’s nationwide campaign Büchel is Everywhere! Nuclear Weapons-Free Now! — of the parent network Abolish Nuclear Weapons – Start with Us! — invites you to a protest action during the International Week for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.

Protest action on Friday, September 22, 2023, in Karlsruhe.

A “Justitia” performance rally is planned in front of the Constitutional Court and in the city center. 

Time: Noon to 2:30 p.m.: rally in front of the Federal Constitutional Court and from there walk at 3 p.m. to Stephansplatz, among other places, for flyer distribution until 4 p.m.

Climate-neutral: After the rally, a part of the protesters will ride about 100 km in a bicycle delegation over the weekend to Strasbourg, France. On Monday, September 25, the cyclers will join a rally there at the European Court of Human Rights.

Please register:

For Karlsruhe, also for overnight stays, and separately for the “Peace bike tour nuclear weapons free 2023” and/or the “Protest in Strasbourg.”

Contact:

Do you have questions about the action? Then write an email to our campaign spokesperson Marion Küpker: aktionen@atomwaffenfrei.jetzt.

Do you have questions about the campaign? Then send us an email to: info@atomwaffenfrei.jetzt.

 www.atomwaffenfrei.de

 www.buechel-atombombenfrei.de

 www.facebook.com/atomwaffenfrei.jetzt

 @atomwaffenfrei

We ask you: Support us with a donation!

By direct bank transfer:

Special account at Förderverein Frieden e.V.

DE78 4306 0967 4041 8604 04

Part 2:

View part 2 of this event, happening Sept 25 in Strasbourg, France.

After a 62-mile bicycle “protest” ride from Karlsruhe, a second rally will take place Sept. 25, 2023 before the offices of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg France, urging the court to consider nuclear resisters’ appeals from erroneous “trespass” convictions (against nonviolent nuclear resisters) upheld by Germany’s Constitutional Court .

Background: 

NATO̓s “nuclear sharing” is practiced at the air base Büchel. German pilots train to fly and drop U.S. nuclear bombs onto target areas in an “emergency.” NATO operational doctrine also includes a possible first use!

For 30 years, the peace movement has been organizing diverse protests at the gates of the Büchel base. It demands that the approx. 20 U.S. nuclear bombs be withdrawn and that our government accede to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We demand a Europe without nuclear sharing and the observance of international law!

Because of the catastrophic dangers that any use of nuclear weapons entail, and the criminality of nuclear deterrence, peace activists have repeatedly been compelled to resort to civil resistance. There were blockades and also go-in actions. The latter have been prosecuted and the people charged have been convicted and sentenced. Nineteen people have filed Constitutional Court complaints (appeals) over the last 26 years, directly related to civil resistance to the U.S. nuclear weapons at “Fliegerhorst Büchel” in the Eifel. None of the 19 complaints have been accepted for review by the Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest. 

All defendants complain that they were denied their “right to a fair trial” under Article 6 of Charter of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because the hearing of exculpatory witnesses was refused by the courts. They were thus denied their “right to a fair hearing” under Article 103 of Germany’s Basic Law. International law stands above national law. Therefore, the designated international law experts should have been admitted as witnesses in the court proceedings.

Germany’s Constitutional Court has so far shirked its responsibility to deal with the concerns of the peace movement’s appeals, without presenting any reasons. Lower court written decisions were merely upheld. 

(For 1.5 years we have been waiting for a reply to the first application! In addition, on March 15, 2010, a civil lawsuit for the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany by a resident who lives in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear weapons site was rejected.) This is despite the fact that under Articles I and II of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Germany is obliged, among other things, not to accept the transfer of nuclear weapons either directly or indirectly. The unlawful transfer of U.S. nuclear weapons practiced by our government threatens our right to life and physical integrity (See Art. 2 and 3, ECHR). That is why currently four (soon six) nuclear resisters who were rejected by the Constitutional Court have filed complaints with the ECHR.

With our protest we demand a review of the nuclear weapons deployment by the Supreme Courts!