Federal Administrative Court - Desicion 10 C 24.08

Asylum Procedure Act Section 3 (1), (2) Sentence 1 No. 1 and 2, (2) Sentence 2
Aliens Act 1990 Section 51 (3) Sentence 2
Residence Act Section 60 (8) Sentence 2 (old version)
Residence Act Section 60 (1) Sentence 1
Charter of the International Military Tribunal of 8 August 1945 Article VI
GCR Article 1 F, Article 33 (2)
Rome Statute Article 7, Article 8, Article 25, Article 27, Article 28
Code of Administrative Court Procedure Section 108 (1), Section 137 (2), Section 144 (3) Sentence 1 No. 2
Directive 2004/83/EC Article 4 (4), Article 8 (1), Article 12 (2)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14 (2)

Headwords:
Reason for exclusion; standard of proof; refugee status; international humanitarian law; internal armed conflict; combatant; war crime; non-political crime; separatism; terrorism; crime against humanity; insufficient findings of fact; international criminal law.

Headnote:
1. At the present time, whether war crimes or crimes against humanity within the meaning of Section 3 (2) Sentence 1 No. 1 of the Asylum Procedure Act exist must be determined primarily according to the elements of these crimes formulated in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 17 July 1998.

2. In an internal armed conflict, war crimes may be committed not only against the civilian population, but also against combatant adversaries.

3. If combat operations by combatants in an internal armed conflict are not covered by Section 3 (2) Sentence 1 No. 1 of the Asylum Procedure Act, as a rule they will also not constitute a serious non-political crime as a reason for exclusion (No. 2).

Decision of the 10th Division of 24 November 2009 - Case No.: BVerwG 10 C 24.08