UN member states posed critical questions to Germany about its policy against racism and discrimination on Tuesday, during a regularly scheduled review session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Despite Germany's positive reputation on human rights, the country has faced a rise in ethnic-charged violence since the 2015 refugee crisis. Authorities recorded around 5,700 attacks on refugees and refugee centers in recent years. The German government has also warned of a rise in anti-Semitism.

During the Tuesday session, the UK wanted to know about Germany's answer to anti-Semitic violence and attacks on asylum seekers. Separately, Brazil urged Germany to protect its places of worship, including synagogues and mosques.

"Despite Germany's efforts, hate speech remains widespread," the Egyptian envoy warned, with Bahrain representative saying her government was "concerned about attacks against Muslims."

Belgium recommended that Germany train its police to fight racism and discrimination, but also demanded information on Germany's efforts against child pornography and prostitution. Sweden asked how Berlin intended to increase the number of female lawmakers.

Read more: Germany's CSU and CDU want German 'values' taught to refugee children in schools

German police becoming more diverse

In turn, Germany pointed to new policies to fight discrimination, such as hiring police officers with immigrant roots and the newly appointed anti-Semitism commissioner.

"There are new developments and challenges that require action in Germany, as well," said Bärbel Kofler, the German government's commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid. "We know we have to move against racist attitudes and discriminatory views in various parts of our society."

German authorities have adopted a country-wide action plan against racism, Kofler said.

"Racist statements on the internet are being prosecuted more vigorously."

Read more: When refugees want to work in Germany

AFD says they are victims of discrimination

Despite Bahrain signaling its concern over attacks on Muslims, its representatives also praised Germany for taking in large numbers of refugees. Diplomats from Australia, Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire also lauded Germany's welcoming policy.

Read more: Scores of refugees attack German police cars over deportation case

In addition to Kofler, several German lawmakers also attended the session, including Jürgen Braun of the far-right AFD. On the sidelines of the Geneva session, Braun said there was no major racism problem in Germany and that the most pressing human rights problem is the lack of adequate media representation for his party. He also said that the diversity of public opinion was shrinking in Germany.

Germany faced a similar grilling in 2009 and 2013 within the Universal Periodic Review of human rights set up by the UN's Human Rights Council. The council has 47 members, but all of the 193 UN members are allowed to take part in the review. Germany can either accept or reject recommendations of other countries. In 2013, Berlin accepted over 160 out of 200 recommendations.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Alexander Gauland Co-chairman Alexander Gauland said the German national soccer team's defender Jerome Boateng might be appreciated for his performance on the pitch - but people would not want "someone like Boateng as a neighbor." He also argued Germany should close its borders and said of an image showing a drowned refugee child: "We can't be blackmailed by children's eyes."

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Alice Weidel Alice Weidel generally plays the role of "voice of reason" for the far-right populists, but she, too, is hardly immune to verbal miscues. Welt newspaper, for instance, published a 2013 memo allegedly from Weidel in which she called German politicians "pigs" and "puppets of the victorious powers in World War II. Weidel initially claimed the mail was fake, but now admits its authenticity.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Frauke Petry German border police should shoot at refugees entering the country illegally, the former co-chair of the AfD told a regional newspaper in 2016. Officers must "use firearms if necessary" to "prevent illegal border crossings." Communist East German leader Erich Honecker was the last German politician who condoned shooting at the border.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Björn Höcke The head of the AfD in the state of Thuringia made headlines for referring to Berlin's Holocaust memorial as a "monument of shame" and calling on the country to stop atoning for its Nazi past. The comments came just as Germany enters an important election year - leading AfD members moved to expel Höcke for his remarks.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Beatrix von Storch Initially, the AfD campaigned against the euro and bailouts - but that quickly turned into anti-immigrant rhetoric. "People who won't accept STOP at our borders are attackers," the European lawmaker said. "And we have to defend ourselves against attackers."

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Marcus Pretzell Pretzell, former chairman of the AfD in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and husband to Frauke Petry, wrote "These are Merkel's dead," shortly after news broke of the deadly attack on the Berlin Christmas market in December 2016.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Andre Wendt The member of parliament in Germany's eastern state of Saxony made waves in early 2016 with an inquiry into how far the state covers the cost of sterilizing unaccompanied refugee minors. Thousands of unaccompanied minors have sought asylum in Germany, according to the Federal Association for Unaccompanied Minor Refugees (BumF) — the vast majority of them young men.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Andre Poggenburg Poggenburg, head of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, has also raised eyebrows with extreme remarks. In February 2017, he urged other lawmakers in the state parliament to join measures against the extreme left-wing in order to "get rid of, once and for all, this rank growth on the German racial corpus" — the latter term clearly derived from Nazi terminology.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Alexander Gauland - again ... During a campaign speech in Eichsfeld in August 2017, AfD election co-candidate Alexander Gauland said that Social Democrat parliamentarian Aydan Özoguz should be "disposed of" back to Anatolia. The German term, "entsorgen," raised obvious parallels to the imprisonment and killings of Jews and prisoners of war under the Nazis.

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks ... and again Gauland was roundly criticized for a speech he made to the AfD's youth wing in June 2018. Acknowledging Germany's responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi era, he went on to say Germany had a "glorious history and one that lasted a lot longer than those damned 12 years. Hitler and the Nazis are just a speck of bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history."

AfD leaders and their most offensive remarks Andreas Kalbitz The Brandenburg state AfD chief admitted in 2019 to attending a 2007 rally in Greece by the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party at which a swastika flag was raised. "Der Spiegel" had published a leaked report by the German embassy in Athens naming him as one of "14 neo-Nazis" who arrived from Germany for the far-right rally. Kalbitz released a statement saying he took part out of "curiosity." Author: Dagmar Breitenbach



dj/kms (dpa, KNA, epd)