Was bedeutet Gerechtigkeit, wenn diejenigen, die sie durchsetzen sollen, selbst Teil gesellschaftlicher Machtverhältnisse sind? Und was kann ein Film erzählen, was juristische Texte nicht sichtbar machen können?

In der neuen Folge des ECCHR-Podcasts "Framing Human Rights" sprechen der Filmemacher Faraz Shariat, Regisseur des Films "Staatsschutz", und der Jurist Khalid El Mahmoud, Legal Trainee beim ECCHR, über institutionellen Rassismus, die Grenzen des Rechts und die politische Kraft des Erzählens.Im Gespräch erzählt Faraz Shariat, warum es im Film nicht nur um rechte Gewalt, sondern auch um die Strukturen dahinter geht. Wen schützt der Staat, und was passiert, wenn diejenigen, die Recht durchsetzen sollen, selbst Teil dieser Strukturen sind? Khaled El Mahmoud bringt eine juristische Perspektive auf diese Fragen mit und spricht über die blinden Flecken eines Rechtssystems, das sich gerne als neutral und „farbenblind“ versteht. Der Film wird dabei zum Ausgangspunkt für ein Gespräch über Recht, Macht und die Frage, wessen Perspektiven sichtbar werden.

Der Film "Staatsschutz" ist seit dem 27. August 2026 im Kino. Mehr Informationen zum Critical Legal Training und zur menschenrechtlichen Arbeit des ECCHR findet ihr auf unserer Website.

Über den Film "Staatsschutz"

Der Politthriller von Regisseur Faraz Shariat und Drehbuchautorin Claudia Schäfer läuft seit dem 27. August 2026 in deutschen Kinos. Der Film feierte seine Premiere im Panorama der Berlinale 2026 und wurde dort mit dem Panorama-Publikumspreis ausgezeichnet.Im Mittelpunkt: die koreanischstämmige Staatsanwältin Seyo Kim, deren Vertrauen in das deutsche Justizsystem nach einem rassistischen Angriff ins Wanken gerät. Als sie auf weitere Fälle rechter Gewalt und Verbindungen zu einem rechtsextremen Netzwerk stößt, beginnt sie, die Institutionen zu hinterfragen, denen sie selbst angehört.

Trailer zum Film: STAATSSCHUTZ

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Listen to the recording of an ECCHR event held on May 4th, 2026: With global attention shifted toward Iran since the U.S.-Israeli attacks, escalations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the West Bank, largely remain outside of international focus. Yet, Palestinians face an unprecedented surge of settler attacks, night raids, land grabs, displacement and political measures that further entrench Israel’s illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory. While Israeli settler violence displaced more Palestinians in the first three months of 2026 than in all of 2025, it barely made international headlines.

These dynamics are interconnected: shifting geopolitical priorities reduce international attention and create conditions which are exploited by Israeli actors to intensify violence and annexation policies in Palestine with little scrutiny.

At the center of the discussion is Dalia Qumsieh, LL.M., Palestinian human rights lawyer and director of the Balasan Initiative for Human Rights based in Palestine. Drawing on her work on the ground, she will provide first-hand insights and legal analysis of recent developments in the West Bank and the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole. The event will also address its effects on human rights work in Palestine, and the possibilities and limits for pursuing policy change and accountability under the current political conditions.

In conversation with Chantal Meloni, senior legal advisor at ECCHR and professor of international criminal law at the University of Milan, the event situates these developments within broader legal debates while grounding them in Dalia’s extensive research and policy experience in Palestine.

Find out more about our work on Palestine

Drohnen und Künstliche Intelligenz sind aus modernen Kriegen kaum noch wegzudenken. Seit 2001 gehört die permanente Angst vor US-Drohnenangriffen zum Alltag vieler Menschen in Afghanistan oder im Jemen. Im Gazastreifen wird KI in großem Umfang für Luftangriffe, die Überwachung der Bevölkerung und das Aufspüren möglicher Ziele eingesetzt. Auch in der Ukraine beeinflusst die massenhafte Produktion kommerzieller Drohnen, die kostengünstig gegen klassische Militärtechnologie eingesetzt werden, maßgeblich den Kriegsverlauf. 

Der Einsatz von KI und Drohnentechnologie verändert grundlegend, wie Kriege geführt werden – und stellt die bisherige Vorherrschaft konventioneller militärischer Macht zunehmend infrage. Die Tötungsmaschinerie wird dabei von riesigen Datenmengen und deren automatisierter Auswertung angetrieben. 

Doch wer trägt Verantwortung für gezielte Tötungen, wenn letztlich eine Maschine oder ein Algorithmus über Leben und Tod entscheidet? Wie lässt sich der Einsatz von KI im Einklang mit Menschenrechten und dem Völkerrecht regulieren? Und vor allem: Welche Rechte und Handlungsmöglichkeiten haben die Betroffenen? Im Gespräch mit Anne Schroeter (ECCHR) sind Jutta Weber (Wissenschafts- und Technikforscherin, Philosophin, Medienwissenschaftlerin sowie Professorin für Mediensoziologie an der Universität Paderborn, Leiterin des Forschungsverbunds MEHUCO) und Andreas Schüller (Programmleiter des Bereichs Völkerstraftaten und rechtliche Verantwortung beim ECCHR, wo er u.a. Betroffene US-amerikanischer Drohnenangriffe unterstützt). 

Quellen in dieser Folge genannter Berichte:  

• Yuval Abraham: ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza

• Future of Life Institute: Slaughterbots

• Future of Life Institute: Slaughterbots – if human: kill()  

• Marc Santora, Lara Jakes, Andrew E. Kramer, Marco Hernandez and Liubov Sholudko: A Thousand Snipers in the Sky: The New War in Ukraine

• Human Rights Watch: A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making  

• ECCHR: Ramstein vor Gericht: Deutschlands Rolle bei US-Drohnenangriffen im Jemen

We have been raised and operate in an environment in which narrations on “migration” and “migrants” are intrinsically racist and colonial. The terms themselves attempt to eclipse and decontextualise Global South mobility within a deeply imbalanced and exploitative postcolonial global system. This allows policymakers to target racialized people by making their movement, stay and activities irregular through reforms focused on excluding them from legality.

Public acceptance of these policies is enabled by an often-non-critical media discourse which further dehumanizes migrants”. These othering narratives run deep and without actively seeking to identify and deconstruct them, they will be reproduced even by those acting for the interest of “migrants”.

In these circumstances, can we ever talk of “migrants” and “migration” without perpetuating racism and colonialism? How much do narratives matter in efforts for social justice?

In this episode, listen to the live recording of an evening event hosted by Hanaa Hakiki from ECCHR’s Border Justice team as she is joined by guests to explore how deeply narratives on migration are still trapped in racism and colonialism. Together they discuss knowledge and narrative formation, the pseudo-science of constructed identities and categories, as well as the aliveness of colonization coupled with collective amnesia. Thinking beyond the present, the guests talk about the power of reimagining new futures, of reclaiming language and celebrating amazing human connections.

Hanaa’s guests are Aghogho Akpome, Musa Okwonga and Sandra Alloush. Aghogho is a narratives specialist and associate professor from the University of Zululand. Through his project, “The refugee ‘crisis’ and European re-imaginings of Africa”, he has analysed the portrayal of black African refugees by authors, filmmakers and playwrights. Musa is a widely published journalist, the author of a number of books including, “In the End It was All About Love” and he hosts a very popular football podcast and Sandra is a Syrian refugee journalist and documentary filmmaker and vice chair of the European Network Against Racism.

Listen to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. Francesca speaks about her mandate in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the increasing threat to the international legal order. She also shares her experiences of repression and human rights violations she witnessed during her visit to Germany in February 2025.

In conversation with Francesca Albanese are Fiona Thorp, Legal Fellow in the Palestine Team at ECCHR, and Chantal Meloni, Senior Legal Advisor in the International Crimes and Accountability program.

ECCHR has worked on cases relating to crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians for over a decade. Recently, ECCHR has filed several requests for provisional measures against German exports of weapons of war and other military equipment to Israel, which are used in attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza. We have also compiled a detailed Q&A on the topic of genocide in Gaza and on the arrest warrants against Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

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image © Laura Fiorio

Die neue Folge „Staatsräson gegen Grundrechte“ beschäftigt sich mit der deutschen Staatsräson im Kontext der anhaltenden Kriegsverbrechen Israels in Gaza. Welche politischen, rechtlichen sowie gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen hat sie im Inneren? Und welche solidarischen Allianzen lassen sich gegen die repressiven Maßnahmen schließen? 

Im Gespräch mit Amira Tamim (ECCHR Alumna) sind Simin Jawabreh, Aktivistin und Politikwissenschaftlerin und Paula Zimmermann, Fachreferentin für Meinungs- und Versammlungsfreiheit bei Amnesty International. 

Das ECCHR hat mehrere Eilanträge gegen deutsche Kriegswaffen- und Rüstungsexporte nach Israel gestellt. Unsere Serie von Klagen und Eilanträgen begann am 11. April 2024 vor dem Verwaltungsgericht Berlin. Erfahrt ⁠hier ⁠mehr über den Fall. In unserem ⁠Q&A⁠ findet ihr Fragen und Antworten zum Thema Völkerrecht und den aktuellen Krieg in Gaza.Auch zum rechtlichen Hintergrund des Genozids sowie aktuellen Entwicklung haben wir Fragen und Antworten aufbereitet. Diese findet ihr ⁠hier.

Amnesty International veröffentlichte gerade einen Bericht, in dem sie zu dem Schluss kommen, dass Israel in Gaza einen Genozid begeht. Den Bericht findet ihr in englischer Sprache ⁠hier⁠. ⁠⁠⁠ Zur systematischen Einschränkung und Unterdrückung der Versammlungsfreiheit in Europa gab Amnesty ⁠diesen Bericht⁠ in englischer Sprache heraus.

Simin Jawabreh hat ⁠diesen Artikel⁠ zum kürzlich wieder eingeführten Ordnungsrecht und den damit verbunden Repressionen an deutschen Hochschulen verfasst.

In this episode, Ethiopian-American author Maaza Mengiste and Italian artist and photographer Laura Fiorio sit down with ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck.

The conversation centers on the colonial history of Italy in Ethiopia. Mengiste talks about the often overlooked role of women in Ethiopia's fight against Italian occupation during World War II, and Italian artist Fiorio talks about her work “My fascist Grandpa.”

Both bring their perspectives to contextualize photography and its manifold meaning and ability to hold and tell truths.

© Vittoria Trovato / Laura Fiorio

© Nina Subin / Maaza Mengiste

Human rights in times of crises #1

Welcome to ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights.

Alejandra Ancheita (lawyer, founder of ProDESC, Mexico), Joshua Castellino (executive director, Minority Rights Group International), and Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR General Secretary) kick off our talk series Human rights in times of crises.

On the basis of Kaleck’s latest book The concrete utopia of human rights: A look back into the future (in German, S. Fischer publishers), our guests discuss how, when faced with a climate crisis, a pandemic, deeply unequal economic models, and authoritarianism, human rights activists can no longer go on with business-as-usual. These unprecedented global transitions are a chance to rethink new strategies and ways forward, and reclaim human rights and their potential for change.

For more information, go to: ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

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Human rights in times of crises #2

Law not only organizes and secures economic profits, it is a crucial factor in creating wealth. Katharina Pistor (author, Columbia Law School) speaks with Guillermo Torres (lawyer, ProDESC), Johan Horst (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Miriam Saage-Maaß (ECCHR program director Business and Human Rights) about how corporate power and law are intertwined.

Our guests explore how economic and financial law are important factors in creating corporate power, and our legal and political options  to restrict this dynamic of growing corporate wealth and power. Can human rights, especially economic and social rights, play a role in insuring our societies become more equitable?

Human rights in times of crises is ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights. 

For more information, go to ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Human rights in times of crises #7

Colonialism continues to shape our current social, economic, and political world order to a substantial degree. In a discussion with prominent human rights advocates at this last event of our series, we will bridge different aspects of a larger struggle, encompassing reparations claims for German colonial crimes in Namibia, the legacy of slavery, unfinished decolonization, as well as the vibrant Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. How can human rights law be used to resist and counteract (post)colonial injustices? How are these movements broadening and intensifying their connections to human rights work and networks? 

In this episode, Sima Luipert (Deputy Chairperson of the Nama Traditional Leaders of Namibia), Vince Warren (Executive Director of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights), and Meena Jagannath (Director of Global Programs at Movement Law Lab based in Florida), take part in a conversation moderated by Wolfgang Kaleck (ECCHR General Secretary). 

Human rights in times of crises is ECCHR’s talk series on resistance and concrete utopias. With our conversations, we want to create the necessary platform for actors from all over the world to discuss and advance global human rights struggles. Human rights are a concrete utopia worth defending. But how to defend them needs to be constantly reinvented. As we find ourselves in a time of profound global transitions, human rights actors need to refer to prevailing inequalities and the underpinning social questions. ECCHR initiated an event series that is now available as a podcast to rethink the struggle for and around human rights.

For more information, go to: ecchr.eu/human-rights-in-times-of-crises

Let’s stay in touch! You want to stay up to date on ECCHR’s cases, events and publications? Subscribe to our newsletter.