Statutory mandate and terms of reference
Pursuant to the constitution, the Parliamentary Commissioner’s mandate is to “safeguard basic rights and to assist the Bundestag in exercising parliamentary control” over the Bundeswehr. His tasks are set out in detail in the Law on the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces.
The Parliamentary Commissioner’s mandate is defined in Section 1, paragraphs (2) and (3) of the Law on the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, which state that the Parliamentary Commissioner takes action for two reasons:
- upon instructions from the Bundestag or the Defence Committee to investigate specific matters (paragraph (2) - area of control subject to instructions);
- on his own initiative and exercising his discretion when circumstances come to his attention which suggest a violation of the basic rights of a member of the armed forces or of the principles of Innere Führung (paragraph (3) - area of control on his own initiative).
In addition to the area defined in paragraph (3), in which the Parliamentary Commissioner may exercise control on his own initiative, the area of control subject to instructions laid down in paragraph (2) covers the entire spectrum of parliamentary control in the defence field. This makes it clear that the parliamentary mandate of the Parliamentary Commissioner to exercise control as an auxiliary organ of the German Bundestag extends beyond the “basic rights of service personnel” and the “principles of Innere Führung”.
In practice, since 1959 the Bundestag has never issued instructions to the Parliamentary Commissioner and the Defence Committee has done so in only 25 cases. The Parliamentary Commissioner may request that the Defence Committee issue instructions to investigate specific matters.
The focus of the Parliamentary Commissioner’s activities is clearly on action which he takes on his own initiative. The circumstances which prompt the Parliamentary Commission to investigate a matter may come to his attention while visiting a unit, through information from Members of the German Bundestag, through submissions from service personnel or in other ways, for example through press, television or radio reports or as a result of the evaluation of reports from units addressed to the Federal Minister of Defence about “special incidents”.
His power of control extends to all institutions in the field of government and administration which are concerned with national defence, above all the Federal Ministry of Defence and its subordinate agencies.
The Parliamentary Commissioner does not take action where the Defence Committee has made the matter a subject of its own deliberations.
However, the tasks of the Parliamentary Commissioner are not limited to exercising parliamentary control over the Bundeswehr on behalf of the Bundestag. The Law on the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces also assigns him the task of dealing with petitions submitted to him by service personnel. Under this Law, all service personnel have the right to contact the Parliamentary Commissioner directly without going through official channels.
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