Norman Paech

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Norman Paech (2010)

Norman Paech (born April 12, 1938 in Bremerhaven ) is a lawyer and emeritus German professor for political science and public law at the University of Hamburg . He has been a politician for the PDS party since 2005 , later Die Linke . The main focus of his political activity is the peace movement .

Studies and academic career

After graduating from high school in Hamburg in 1957, Paech studied history and law at the University of Tübingen as well as in Munich and Paris. From 1959 he continued his law studies in Hamburg and graduated in 1962 with the first state examination in law.

He then worked as a research assistant at the University of Hamburg , where he received his doctorate in 1965 with his dissertation on the subject of collective bargaining and state intervention - a contribution to the problem of forced settlement of labor disputes . After completing his doctorate, he completed his legal clerkship and passed the second state examination in 1967.

After additional studies at the German Development Institute from 1967 to 1968 in Berlin, he worked from 1968 to 1972 as a research assistant at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation .

In 1972 he moved to the research center of the Association of German Scientists in Hamburg as a research assistant , where in 1974 he was given a teaching position for political science at the Faculty of Law II (FB 17) at the University of Hamburg . From 1975 to 1982 he was Professor of Political Science in the one-stage legal training .

In 1982 Paech was appointed Professor of Public Law at the University of Economics and Politics (HWP; since 2005: Department of Economics and Politics at the University of Hamburg ). He has been retired since 2005 .

After the wars in Yugoslavia , Paech emerged from the mid-1990s as a critic of the manner in which the Hague War Crimes Tribunal had dealt with the law, particularly criticizing the course of the proceedings against the former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević .

Political career and activities

Norman Paech at the final rally of the Hamburg Easter March on April 9, 2007

Paech became a member of the SPD in 1969 and was a member of the state executive committee of the Jusos in Hamburg from 1972 to 1973 . In 2001, however, he resigned from the SPD because of the decision by the red-green majority in the Bundestag to deploy the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan .

Paech moved into the 16th German Bundestag in 2005 via the Hamburg Open List of the Linkspartei.PDS and was a member of the German Bundestag for one electoral term (until 2009) . Since 2007 he has also been an official member of the Die Linke party .

Paech was the foreign policy spokesman for the left-wing parliamentary group and its attorney in the proceedings against the tornado operations in Afghanistan ( tornado lawsuit ) before the Federal Constitutional Court .

His most formative political field of activity lies in the peace movement. In addition to many publications and a. in the PeaceForum and in Science and Peace , speeches on Easter marches and statements in the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the Bundestag, he is a permanent speaker in the Peace Research Working Group on Peace Research .

Norman Paech can be found regularly with daily political contributions in the young world , in the Taz and in New Germany .

Participation in the Ship-to-Gaza incident

In 2010, Paech was with Inge Höger and Annette Groth on board the Mavi Marmara , one of the ships of the aid flotilla for the Gaza Strip that Israel seized, and was then imprisoned in Israel. He had decided to take the boat trip to break the blockade. In his opinion, the blockade of the Gaza Strip constituted a crime against humanity , and the hijacking of the ships was a violation of international law.

The flotilla tried to break the sea ​​blockade on Gaza . The ships were warned by the Israeli Navy in international waters and eventually boarded after being told to change course. Paech was on board the ship Mavi Marmara , on which nine people were killed in the operation . Upon his return, he described the incident as an "act of piracy". Paech and the other participating left-wing politicians were criticized in a television report by the station 3sat for having been "in the same boat with Islamists and right-wing extremists " and "apparently showing little fear of contact when it comes to their goals". The newspapers Die Welt and the Tageszeitung also addressed the “dubious passengers” of the fleet. In addition, the warlike-Islamist statements of various participating organizers are difficult to reconcile with the claim of the Left Party to be an “anti-war party”.

On the occasion of a criminal complaint filed by Höger against the Israeli actions, the Federal Prosecutor's Office came to the conclusion at the end of 2014 that the ships of the Gaza flotilla were to be regarded as merchant ships, not as warships, but according to the San Remo Manual these could also become military objects. when trying to break a trade block. By refusing to stop, the ships had become a permissible military target, which is why the flotilla could be used and attacked because of the resistance offered by the passengers.

Functions and memberships

Positions and Criticism

Kosovo war

Paech was chairman of the jury of the European section of the unofficial "International Tribunal on the NATO War against Yugoslavia". Regarding NATO's mission in Kosovo with the participation of the Bundeswehr, Paech took the position of the unanimous "verdict" that it was aggression against a sovereign state that had violated international law and the constitution. The consequences of the conflict in Kosovo were also made worse by NATO intervention. In his opinion, attacks on civilian targets during the war were also crimes that should have been taken up by the Hague Tribunal. He also criticized the trial against Milosevic as questionable, for example because no Yugoslav judges were admitted and the accused had no access to the media.

Role of the UN

In the face of the Iraq war , Paech debated whether the UN would share the fate of the League of Nations because of its ineffectiveness in securing peace . He comes to the conclusion that even if the Security Council and the veto ultimately could not prevent the Iraq war, they were "the only diplomatic institutions through which the resistance to war policy could be articulated, organized and broadened." If the international community had the will, however, war could have been prevented via the UN, following the example of Dean Acheson's uniting for peace resolution , which was applied several times from 1950 to 1997 and which has become valid under customary law (emergency special meetings at the Based on Resolution 377 V). The "downfall of Chapter VII of the UN Charter " is understandable from the loss of the balance of power after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In a reconstruction of the development, Paech shows that the UN was already weakened, but not incapable of acting, in the question of the continuation and tightening of the sanctions against Iraq after 1999, when the sanctions system of Art. 41 UN Charter was "downright perverted" was.

Israel

The publicist Eike Geisel accused Paech in 1993, on the occasion of his criticism of the Israeli government, of recommending “the right-wing propaganda of the Jews' guilt for anti-Semitism in a slightly defused form” . Paech believes negotiations with the Islamist Hamas are necessary in order to bring the conflict between Israel and Palestinians closer to a civil solution.

The federal working group Shalom der Linkjugend 'solid accused Paech of having made statements at a panel discussion that had revealed "uninhibited fraternization with the terrorist Hamas and anti-Zionist resentment" and asked him to resign. He has also been criticized for questioning the legitimacy of the UN partition resolution of 1947 . Paech had quoted from the report of a UN committee from 1947 the assessment that the decision to partition without prior consultation of the “Palestinian people” violated the “right of the peoples to self-determination” (Article 1 of the UN Charter ). Paech sees the blame for the failure of the UN in “bringing about a peaceful coexistence” not in the organization itself, but in the politics of the USA.

In April 2008 the BAK Shalom also accused him of not recognizing Israel's right to exist. Paech had previously said: “The question of the right to exist can only come at the end of a negotiation process, as can the question of drawing boundaries.” And “In fact, international law does not recognize the concept of a right to exist. Nevertheless, I believe that recognition of Israel's right to exist is politically necessary because of German history. But Israel also has to say what exactly should be recognized, which territory within which borders. "

The freelance journalist Jan-Philipp Hein accused Paech of seeing terror against Israel merely as a resistance to oppression and of setting this so absolutely that he completely misunderstood anti-Semitic currents in the Arab world. According to Hein's statement, at the height of the 2006 Lebanon War , Paech claimed that anti-Semitism did not exist in the Middle East. Paech, on the other hand, accused Hein of falsifying quotations - he had never made this statement and it didn't even come close to reflecting his assessment.

On the question of the Iranian nuclear program and the related threat potential for Israel, Paech said that Israel was threatening Iran, "not the other way around". He also called for sanctions up to and including a boycott of Israeli goods in order to bring Israel "to comply with international law", as was the case with South Africa.

Anti-Semitism resolution

Paech was criticized by the Union , the Greens and representatives of his own party for not being present at the anti-Semitism resolution of the party Die Linke on the 70th anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht , but for dissociating himself from it with ten other members of his party. The MPs justified their absence, among other things, with the fact that the CDU had degraded the resolution to an election campaign event.

Private

Paech is married and lives in Hamburg.

Publications

  • With Gerhard Stuby : international law and power politics in international relations . VSA, Hamburg 2005; updated edition 2013, ISBN 978-3-89965-041-9 ( review by Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum , FAZ , January 19, 2014).
  • Drones and International Law . In: Peter Strutynski (Ed.): Killing by remote control. Combat drones in the global shadow war . Pp. 19–33, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-85371-366-2 .
  • Empire or (neo-) imperialism? Are we experiencing a second "American century"? In: The planning of worldwide wars of intervention, international law and the future of humanity. Contributions to the 13th Dresden Peace Symposium on February 12, 2005. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitspektiven (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers , Dresden 2005, Issue 74, pp. 8–22.
  • Ed .: International Law instead of Power Politics - Contributions for Gerhard Stuby . Hamburg 2004, ISBN 978-3-89965-089-1 .
  • The social, economic and cultural human rights in the legal system of the international economic and trade order . Bonn 2003.
  • Field of action: world domestic policy - international legal foundations of global governance . Hamburg 2003.
  • Democracy - where and how? Hamburg 2002.
  • In matters of the war in Afghanistan, the deployment of the armed forces and international law . Frankfurt am Main 2001.
  • Edited with Joachim Hoesler, Gerhard Stuby, Johannes Klotz: The just war? New NATO strategy, international law and the Western Europeanization of the Balkans . Donat, Bremen 2000.
  • Edited with Martin Kutscha: Total registration . Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1986.

Web links

Commons : Norman Paech  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norman Paech - About the person. In: norman-paech.de. Retrieved December 24, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Gernot Knödler: Norman Paech on imprisonment in Israel: "The Mossad was there from day one" . In: the daily newspaper . ( taz.de [accessed on April 11, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Stefan Reinecke : Israeli military action against Soliflotte: returnees raise serious allegations. In: taz.de . June 7, 2010, accessed December 24, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Left-wing politicians accuse Israel of war crimes. In: handelsblatt.com . June 1, 2010, accessed December 24, 2014 .
  5. ^ 3sat: Questionable peace mission
  6. ↑ Doris Akrap / Philipp Gessler : Gaza Auxiliary Flotilla in Twilight: The Doubtful Passengers. In: taz.de . July 13, 2010, accessed December 24, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Boris Kálnoky: The Islamist Background of the Gaza Fleet. In: welt.de . June 12, 2010, accessed December 24, 2014 .
  8. ^ Letter from the Federal Prosecutor's Office to Inge Höger. September 30, 2014, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on December 14, 2016 .
  9. ^ Members of the scientific advisory board. In: Attac. Retrieved July 13, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Documentation: Search for the truth of this war . In: Friday . September 6, 2000, ISSN  0945-2095 ( freitag.de [accessed April 11, 2017]).
  11. ↑ taz, the daily newspaper: - taz.de. Retrieved April 11, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Felix Langhammer, Axel Gebauer ;: Allegations against NATO are "not relevant" for the Hague Tribunal (new Germany) . ( neue-deutschland.de [accessed on April 11, 2017]).
  13. ^ Mechthild Henneke: PDS forum discussed the tribunal in The Hague: Flaming speeches for Milosevic . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on April 11, 2017]).
  14. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: The Role of the UN and the Security Council in the Iraq Conflict | bpb. Retrieved April 11, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Eike Geisel: Der helpflose Antisemitismus , Konkret 01/93, p. 62.
  16. ↑ Declaration on resignation calls against Norman Paech and internal party controversies on the Middle East conflict. In: die-linke-hamburg.de. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015 ; Retrieved December 24, 2014 .
  17. ↑ Anti- Zionism in the LEFT - Norman Paech as foreign policy spokesman unsustainable! In: bak-shalom.de. April 30, 2008, accessed December 24, 2014 .
  18. ^ Sheets for German and international politics, 5'98 ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ netzeitung.de of March 24, 2007 Berlin promotes dialogue with Palestinians ( Memento of April 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ Palestine - Eternal War in the Middle East? On the history and future of the Middle East conflict. - View from the high blue. In: Sicht-vom-hochblauen.de. January 21, 2016, accessed November 18, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Jan-Philipp Hein: Left Party: A Problem Called Israel. In: stern.de . May 23, 2008, accessed December 24, 2014 .
  22. ↑ "I would also like to point out to the journalists referring to the stern.de article that I never made the statement that was rumored there that there is no anti-Semitism in the Middle East - neither en passant nor upon request - and that they doesn’t even come close to reflecting my assessment. ” in: Norman Paech’s answer on his website ( memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ Norman Paech: "Help for Gaza past Hamas?", Interview with Neues Deutschland from March 4, 2009, https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/144895.hilfe-fuer-gaza-an-hamas- over.html? sstr = paech .
  24. ↑ fds Berlin criticizes refusal to make a joint declaration against anti-Semitism on November 8, 2008 ( Memento from January 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: forum-ds.de
  25. ↑ Nationwide campaign weeks against anti-Semitism started - criticism of left-wing MPs ( memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: domradio.de
personal data
SURNAME Paech, Norman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (left), Member of the Bundestag, university professor
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremerhaven